The Most Gruesome Medical Practices that are now Banned

When one says “banned medical practices”, you might think of leeches being placed on a wound site to prevent clots, or perhaps the terrible opiod drug, heroin, being prescribed to babies to soothe their coughs. However, believe it or not, medical practices used to be much, much worse. In this article, we’ll outline the top five most disturbing and now (thankfully) banned medical practices.

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1.) Dolphin Smacks

While this one is almost a hilarity, it is well documented that in the ninth century, anyone who was sick with a cold or anything of the more minor nature, was instructed to have someone they trusted kill a dolphin, then take the hide of the dolphin and fashion it into a scourge. On a Wednesday night right as the moon had reached its’ peak spot in the sky, beat the afflicted with the dolphin scourge. The sick was then supposed to feel better by the time morning came.

2.) Diverted Irritation

In the 16th and 17th century, it was once believed that treating ailments with another ailment was somehow going to help by tricking the body into diverting its’ attention to another, less serious affliction. For example, a person with a broken arm would have a massive gash (which they referred to as “issues”) into their leg and the doctor would then stuff it with random items such as peas, soybeans, or straw. It was believed that as long as the item was from nature—such as a bean or piece of corn—rather than something unnatural, this method would be successful. The doctor would then keep track of the wound and ensure that it would remain open until the broken arm was completely healed. After the broken arm was healed, he would simply remove the objects he had placed inside and stitch up the wound—that is—if they didn’t die from infection first. There are actually many pieces of literature where the doctor reports that this system actually helped.

3.) Lovesick Remedies

Catching a sexually transmitted disease in the medieval times was no joke. Two of the most common at the time was Chlamydia and herpes. If left untreated, they can both result in huge, painful and oozing sores. It was stated in a book written by a highly esteemed doctor that specialized in “lovesickness” at the time that those afflicted should have a metal ring that has been dipped in lead circling the area. Each pustule that had developed should then be popped, and then the subject should be whipped everywhere until they emitted a terrible odor. It was also suggested that dousing the genitalia in acid and branding the forehead with a hot piece of metal would eliminate the possibility of turning into a werewolf.

4.) Circulating the Issue

A psychiatrist in the 1800s named Dr. Rush believed that any type of mental problems stemmed directly from the brain not receiving an ample amount of circulation. While his theory can make sense at least somewhat in essence, his practice for taking care of this problem did the opposite. Dr. Rush would hang his patients by their feet from two ropes and have one of his attending medical staff spin the patients around on these ropes until the veins in their head bulged. It was only then, he said, that optimal circulation had been achieved. Oftentimes, patients would come back multiple times per week for these sessions.

5.) The Lobotomy

This is the most recently practiced and banned procedure, and therefore—the most terrifying. After centuries of electrical shock treatments, the circulation therapy we’ve just talked about, and countless other fruitless attempts at treating mental illness, Dr. Freeman decided to go straight to what he believed was the source of all mental ailments—the frontal lobe. In 1936, he performed his first lobotomy by taking a tiny ice pick through the corner of one’s eye, cracking the skull, and continuing to protrude until it reached the squishy membrane of the frontal lobe. The ice pick then chopped up the frontal lobe, and patients were left in a state that was obedient, calm, and well-mannered. The lobotomy was said to treat restlessness in children, sadness in the grieving, depression, insomnia, and so on. To most, it appeared that this was the first successful cure for mental illness. As time went on and more medical advances were made, however, it was found that this odd almost-zombie-like state the patients were in was actually a form of mental retardation. This practice has since been banned as of the early 1980s. While those who did have lobotomies in that time went on to live otherwise menial lives as bus drivers or in assisted living facilities. Some are even still alive and have no idea that the procedure was even performed on them.

We really have to appreciate modern medicine and it is with hope that we continue to watch it grow. While some of these banned practices sound perhaps a little silly, they were undoubtedly devastating at the time and deserve some notoriety.

Did you know? #13 - The Most Gruesome Medical Practices that are now Banned