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“By the seventh century, eminent physicians were arguing over the best cure for lovesickness. All agreed, however, that keeping the brain sufficiently moist was absolutely critical. To achieve the desired humidity, doctors would force a lovesick man to smell the menstrual cloth of his beloved or inhale the stinking embers of her burned feces.”
― Strange Medicine: A Shocking History of Real Medical Practices Through the Ages
― Strange Medicine: A Shocking History of Real Medical Practices Through the Ages
“A doctor would tie a leech to some silk thread and lower it down his patient’s throat. When the leech became heavy with blood, he’d reel it in like a fish. To bleed a man’s testicles, doctors often applied, over the course of several days, a hundred or more leeches.”
― Strange Medicine: A Shocking History of Real Medical Practices Through the Ages
― Strange Medicine: A Shocking History of Real Medical Practices Through the Ages
“In the neighboring town of Carlisle, Lister had observed sewage disposers cleanse their waste with a cheap, sweet-smelling liquid containing carbolic acid. Lister began to apply carbolic acid paste to wounds after surgery. (That he was applying a sewage cleanser to his patients appears not to have struck him as even the slightest bit unusual.) In”
― The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
― The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
“In ancient times, urine was a prophylactic, a health drink. John XXI, the only medical doctor ever to become pope, drank it religiously until the ceiling he designed himself fell on his head, killing him. Galen wasn’t a big fan of urine therapy—he couldn’t stand the smell—but did suggest drinking “gold glue,” the urine of an innocent boy stirred in a copper pot.”
― Strange Medicine: A Shocking History of Real Medical Practices Through the Ages
― Strange Medicine: A Shocking History of Real Medical Practices Through the Ages
“them. Through most of medical history, doctors happily steered clear of incontinence, with folk medicine filling the vacuum. People ate roast pig penis sandwiches topped with buttered horse dung and stuck frogs to their kids’ waists. Mice seem to have been a universal remedy; in disparate cultures all over the world, people had them fried, boiled, baked into pancakes, and worn around the neck.”
― Strange Medicine: A Shocking History of Real Medical Practices Through the Ages
― Strange Medicine: A Shocking History of Real Medical Practices Through the Ages
The Year of Reading Proust
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— last activity Mar 29, 2025 09:41AM
2013 was the year for reading—or re-reading—Marcel Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu or In Search of Lost Time for many of us. However, these th ...more
Tatiana’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Tatiana’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
1,768 books
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60 friends
842 books
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531 friends
250 books
|
61 friends
72 books
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39 friends
1,567 books
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99 friends
196 books
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819 friends
753 books
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2,819 friends
48 books
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891 friends
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