Tatiana

“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.”
― Nathan Belofsky, 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”
― Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer

“The way I see it, being dead is not terribly far off from being on a cruise ship. Most of your time is spent lying on your back. The brain has shut down. The flesh begins to soften. Nothing much new happens, and nothing is expected of you.”
― Mary Roach, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

“According to official Soviet statistics submitted to the World Health Organization in the 1970s, virtually every imaginable infectious disease was on the decline or had disappeared, thanks to communist policies. It was widely believed in international health circles at the time that these statistics were wholly fabricated. 9”
― Laurie Garrett, The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance