Category:
Medicine
Medicine
Human Flesh Cure
The 1999 film Ravenous (starring Guy Pearce and Robert Carlyle) is about cannibalism. It's loosely inspired by the stories of the Donner Party and Alferd Packer. But it also includes the idea that eating human flesh can cure any wound or disease.I was reminded of that film when I came across this real-life case, from 1932, of someone trying the human-flesh cure, apparently successfully. But I wonder why the husband fed his wife only a third of his thigh steak? What did he do with the rest? Does eating too much human flesh turn someone into a vampire?
The Des Moines Register - Dec 25, 1932
In Fukuoka prefecture, Japan, banking on the superstition that to eat of human flesh cures all ills, a Korean whose wife had neuralgia cut a half-pound slice of flesh off his thigh, cut the slice in three parts, cooked one part, fed it to his wife, telling her it was rabbit. His wife improved; he went to the government hospital with an infected thigh.
Posted By: Alex - Fri Mar 11, 2016 -
Comments (7)
Category: Cannibalism, Medicine, 1930s
Paleo Diet of 1916
The idea that we'd all be healthier if we lived and ate like the cave man did has been around a long time. It long predates the current "paleo diet" trend.For instance, back in 1916, the makers of Nujol wanted everyone to believe that if you pooped a lot, like the cave man did, you'd be a model of health. Nujol was basically raw petroleum, which is why it was sold by the Standard Oil company. It's name meant "New Oil." Read more of Nujol's history here.
Source: Oregon Daily Journal - Sep 21, 1916
Posted By: Alex - Sat Dec 12, 2015 -
Comments (4)
Category: Medicine, 1910s
Groovy Dentist
"Groovy people should wear groovy clothes," said San Francisco dentist Rodney Pain in 1971. "That way we turn on the whole world."Pain embodied this ideal by doing away with the white tunic typically worn by dentists and always wearing groovy clothes instead.
Dr. Pain sounded familiar, and then I realized that I've posted about him before. He's the same guy who made the news in 1966 because he played bagpipes for his patients while waiting for their fillings to set.
Well, I assume it's the same guy. How many dentists named Rodney Pain could there be in San Francisco?
Note that in the 1966 photo, he isn't yet wearing groovy clothes.
Colorado Springs Gazette - Mar 5, 1971
Dr. Rodney Pain in 1966, playing bagpipes
Posted By: Alex - Sun Sep 27, 2015 -
Comments (5)
Category: Medicine, 1970s
Do You See It?
Do you see an image of a person, place or thing on this brain scan? If so what do you see? If not tell that too. No cheating, only go to the link after you tell us what you see if you see anything at all.
Posted By: Alex - Tue Sep 22, 2015 -
Comments (22)
Category: Ambiguity, Uncertainty and Deliberate Obscurity, Medicine, Brain
Kidney stone-removing bed
Zhu Qinghua, a Chinese rice farmer, has invented a "kidney stone-removing bed." A person is strapped into the bed and hung upside down. Then the entire device vibrates intensely thanks to some kind of tractor engine attached to it.Zhu has been strapping his wife into this thing and claims it's completely cured her kidney stones. [shanghaiist.com]
Posted By: Alex - Tue Apr 14, 2015 -
Comments (8)
Category: Inventions, Medicine
BIG-CAT SCAN
A lion getting a CAT scan!
Posted By: Alex - Sat Mar 21, 2015 -
Comments (1)
Category: Animals, Hospitals, Medicine
Hiccupops
Kievman invented "hiccupops" after her own bout with the hiccups around the seventh grade. She researched cures and found three things that helped cure them (and were backed up by some scientific research) — apple cider, sugar and sucking on lollipops. She decided to combine all three into one product... Kievman then started setting up a business to manufacture it. Right now, she’s on the brink of getting it distributed and ready for sale.
Posted By: Alex - Fri Mar 20, 2015 -
Comments (2)
Category: Inventions, Patents, Medicine
Violet Rays
Good thing they clarified that this was NOT a vibrator. Otherwise someone might have gotten hurt.
Source: Illustrated World, March 1920.
Posted By: Alex - Wed Mar 18, 2015 -
Comments (5)
Category: Medicine, 1920s
Woodward’s Gripe Water
Gripe water is what people used to give to kids to calm them down if they had colic, teething pains, etc. But what exactly was in the stuff? According to wikipedia, the main ingredients were alcohol, dill oil, sodium bicarbonate, sugar, and water. But this ad makes me think there must have been a little something extra in the Indian formulation of the stuff.
via reddit
Posted By: Alex - Fri Mar 06, 2015 -
Comments (11)
Category: Medicine, 1930s
Anti-Vaxxers
Picture one is a child with measles. Picture two is a child with smallpox. The only study to vilify vaccines has been completely debunked and yet supposedly loving and intelligent parents are denying their children the protection of vaccinations. These people also put others at risk with this irresponsible choice. The scientific community is at a loss as to how to reverse this dangerous trend. Meanwhile pop culture icons weigh in on a subject they have no expertise about and influence decisions that damage society as a whole and children especially.
Government needs to step in for public safety before these diseases take hold in the general population unnecessarily. Parents are being threatened with having their children taken away for letting them walk to the park unaccompanied yet refusing the protection of vaccinations is being allowed. We are down the rabbit hole on this issue.
Posted By: Alex - Wed Mar 04, 2015 -
Comments (25)
Category: Confusion, Misunderstanding, and Incomprehension, Medicine, Surrealism, Can’t Possibly Be True, More Things To Worry About, Diseases, Disease
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| Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1. Contact Us |