1. Beatings, Acid Bath for Treating Mental Illness
Dr. Benjamin Rush – one of the signers of the American Declaration of Independence and author of several famous medical books – had some terrifying methods for treating patients. To treat certain conditions such as mental illness, Dr. Rush would pour about 20 liters of freezing cold water over the patients’ bodies during the winter.
Dr. Benjamin Rush using violence to treat mentally ill patients
According to Dr. Rush, mental illness is caused by poor blood circulation to the brain, so he would hang patients from ropes and spin them using cords hanging from the ceiling. He also invented the “tranquilizer chair,” where the patient’s head would be enclosed in a box and their hands and feet tied.
Believing that pain would cure the illness, Dr. Rush would beat, starve, and verbally abuse the patients. In some cases, he would even pour acid on their backs, cut their skin with a knife, and leave the wounds open for months or even years to “release the brain.”
2. Medicine Made from Human Body Parts
During the Renaissance period, the aristocracy and officials in Germany requested pharmacists to create various medicines using 23 different body parts, including human skulls. A medicine repository from 1652 shows dried meat, dried blood, fat, skin, marinated human meat, and moss growing on human skulls and shattered bones used by doctors.
Human skulls also used as medicine during the Renaissance period
During that time, Dr. Johann Schroeder left behind a prescription he wrote: “Take fresh meat from the corpse of a red-haired twenty-four-year-old man, cut the meat into pieces, sprinkle with fragrant resin and a little lily. Then, soak the meat in wine and store it in a cool place.”
In medical schools, doctors would have epileptic patients stand near and drink fresh blood from those who were executed. On the battlefields of Ostand in the early 1600s, doctors even carried sacks to collect fat and body parts from the deceased for medicine.
3. Using Leeches to Suck Human Blood
During the Middle Ages, it was believed that bloodletting was an effective way to treat diseases, especially when leeches were used. In the early 19th century, the French aristocracy used over 40 million leeches per year for medical treatment. They would let the leeches crawl all over their hands, feet, and bodies, even placing them in sensitive areas.
A leech would be tied with a silk thread and then dropped into the patient’s throat or inserted into the female genitals in hopes of reducing gynecological diseases, increasing desire, and preventing miscarriage. The British nobility often sent their wives for leech treatments once every two weeks.
4. Inserting Beans into Wounds
Doctors would use a scalpel or a cutting knife to open a wound in the patient’s body. They would then insert foreign objects into the wound, often dry Dutch beans or various seeds, to cause infection. Afterwards, doctors would reopen the wound daily to prevent it from healing.
Many doctors would also use a hot iron rod to create a wound or apply acid to cause swelling in the patient’s body. Dr. Toogood, a senior surgeon at Bridgewater Hospital in England, wrote about his treatment for a 20-year-old girl with a dislocated joint: “I made a large wound on her body, into which I inserted 40 wooden beans and kept it open for 2 years. After some time, she no longer whimpered inside the house and was able to go outside with a four-wheeled cart. She was able to work, paint, and live a happier life.”
