In the past, the medical profession has tried unusual ways of trying to cure – or at least relieve – the symptoms of patients.
Here – as the Welcome Collection in central London celebrates the weirdest remedies – one of its librarians, William Schupbach, and event curator, Alex Julyan, look back at the products that “quacks” tried to sell to the public.
Ah, the infamous Carbollic smoke ball. Every law student knows that one.
Well thank goodness we don’t have 18th century quack “remedies” like homeopathy being endorsed or funded by the health services and royalty today.
The leech pictures have freaked me out. Somebody hold me!
Quite nice to look at, and the music makes you go into a dancing system behind your office, more or less ..
Electronic belts .. ha, those are still here nowadays .. although a bit different .. quite funny, they can make you do crunches without having to put any energy into it. The muscle does get stronger, but you wont burn fat there. If you put it to max it really gets funny …. Even more funny to have someone new try it .. and watch their face …
SGC – Leeches have recently made a comeback, due to the bloodletting and anithetising properties! I hear they also use maggots under bandages for removing gangrinous tissue.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n797Oqk6Wc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M-B7dQBJe8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=813hObVPZLo
Don’t have nightmares
@flapjack
Eeeeewwwww!!!
It suddenly struck me regarding my first youtube link above… how the hell are leeches supposed to cure depression?
Would anyone here feel any less depressed if they had leeches on them, or are we splitting hairs about the subtle difference between being depressed and totally grossed/freaked out?
Is the idea “well it’s taken my mind of what was depressing me, right now I just want you to take those disgusting bloodsucking worms off!” or “If you don’t snap out of it we’ll throw leeches at you!”?
Clicked, saw video titles, closed windows but I know when I am not at work my curiosity will get the better of me.
Did you just search for maggoty wounds and leeches on YouTube? Your recommendation page is going to be amazing.
SGC – nah, contrary to popular opinion I don’t spend all spare hours of the day grossing myself out… these are just things I’ve stumbled on while either watching local news programmes or sciencey documentaries, which I thought would add a bit of colour to the discussion. Though in fairness, the gross things do stick in my head more than most!
I did see Jeremy Spake visiting at a Welsh leech farm on “The worst job in Britain”. They feed them by lowering what looks like a salami-skin full of blood in the aquarium, and they all attach themselves in an instant.
I once found a leech on a science field trip at secondary school, where the idea was to collect samples of river life to study in jam jars. Me and a friend amused ourselves for the best part of an afternoon by sucking it up a teat pippette and squeezing it out again. Don’t know what the leech thought of it!
Flapjack, you are almost as easily amused as me! Leech goes up, leech goes down, leech goes up, leech goes down…