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When historians refer to the Victorian era, they often describe it as a period of rapid progress. Indeed, there were many advances in both the sciences and the arts, and many of the developments that took place during that period helped to shape the world as we know it today.
However, it's also fair to say that the field of medicine has improved quite a lot since the 19th century, and there were aspects of Victorian medicine that are simply baffling to modern doctors.
Curious? Check out this gallery to find out more.
Despite the fact that arsenic has been recognized as a poison since ancient times, Victorian doctors used small doses to treat a variety of conditions, from syphilis to anemia.
Arsenic was administered in many forms, from ingestion to injection, and many people suffered symptoms of arsenic poisoning, such as rashes, headaches, and stomach problems.
In the 21st century, we have a vaccination against chicken pox, but during Victorian times children were given laxatives to help deal with the itchy outbreaks.
The idea was that ingesting a laxative, usually castor oil, would help the system flush out the infectious disease. In reality, however, it usually just compounded the suffering.
When it came to treating constipation, Victorian doctors recommended a number of remedies, from opium to turpentine. The most shocking, however, was strychnine.
In the 21st century, we know that even a tiny amount of strychnine can cause convulsions. At the time, however, it was believed to improve gastric function.
Towards the end of the 19th century, if you had a bad case of hiccups, your doctor would likely have recommended chloroform, an organic compound also used by doctors as an anesthetic.
Arguably we still haven’t found a proper remedy for hiccups. Doctors do understand, however, that chloroform is harmful to the nervous system, liver, and kidneys.
Perhaps the most shocking entry on this list is the cigarettes that were prescribed for asthma. For much of the 19th and even 20th centuries, it was widely believed that inhaling tobacco and cannabis smoke could help ease the symptoms of asthma.
Various doctors' manuals recommended the practice as an effective treatment, and there were even special "anti-asthma" cigarettes.
For thousands of years, one of the main treatments for many illnesses was bloodletting, either with leeches or otherwise. By Victorian times, it was still used as a treatment for nausea, in particular in cases of morning sickness in pregnant women.
While bloodletting can actually help to treat a few conditions, such as hemochromatosis, ultimately it was scrapped as doctors realized frequent bleeding could weaken patients.
When it came to treating insomnia, a Victorian doctor’s go-to was the ‘cold douche,' which involved blasting the patient with cold water. The idea was that the shock would put the brain back into a healthier mode, and sleep would follow as a result.
Other remedies for insomnia included coffee and alcohol—both things that contemporary doctors recommend we avoid if we have a hard time falling asleep.
One of the bigger blunders in Victorian medicine was the use of Belladonna to treat colic in babies. The plant is poisonous and is now known to be harmful to infants.
Belladonna is still used in modern medicine, but only for adults. For years now doctors have recognized that it is not safe for use in children.
A favorite treatment for earache among Victorian doctors was to leech their patients behind the ear. It may sound disgusting, but with this one, they may have actually been onto something.
Indeed, modern research shows that once they are attached to a host, leeches can help to numb pain and drain an infection. In 2004, the FDA recognized leeches as a viable live medical device.
During the 19th century, before people realized how addictive it was, cocaine was promoted as an effective treatment for conditions ranging from morphine addiction to migraines.
In the 1880s Sigmund Freud helped to popularize cocaine as a treatment option for alcoholism, referring to it as a "magical drug."
During the late 19th century, milk was sometimes used as a substitute for blood. The idea was that by doing a milk-blood transfusion, the fatty oils in the milk would become white blood cells.
There were a few cases of this procedure being carried out successfully. However, in the vast majority of cases, the patient died.
We have already looked at one shocking Victorian treatment for asthma in cigarettes. However, another perplexing recommendation was chloroform.
Many doctors believed that chloroform could relieve all asthma symptoms and therefore promoted it as a treatment. Unfortunately, it caused many patients to die from overdoses.
Again, we have already seen that cocaine was prescribed as a remedy for a number of conditions, but perhaps the most surprising is hay fever.
It seems strange in the 21st century that such a serious and harmful substance was prescribed for such a mild, albeit irritating affliction.
Perhaps the most curious entry on this list is the "whale hotel" for rheumatoid arthritis, as described in an 1899 article from The Pacific Commercial Advertiser.
According to the article, there was a hotel in Australia where patients could go to seek treatment for rheumatoid arthritis.
Whenever a whale died nearby, the patient could be rowed to the whale, which would then be cut up and a large hole made in the body.
The patient would then lie down in the carcass for around two hours and allow the decomposing blubber to act as a "huge poultice," allegedly relieving soreness and inflammation.
Sources: (English Heritage) (Mental Floss) (Library of Congress)
See also: The mystical and powerful plants of ancient medicine
The horrors and curiosities of Victorian medicine
From leeches to whale carcasses
LIFESTYLE History
When historians refer to the Victorian era, they often describe it as a period of rapid progress. Indeed, there were many advances in both the sciences and the arts, and many of the developments that took place during that period helped to shape the world as we know it today.
However, it's also fair to say that the field of medicine has improved quite a lot since the 19th century, and there were aspects of Victorian medicine that are simply baffling to modern doctors.
Curious? Check out this gallery to find out more.