- In Babylon, a mistake by a physician was very costly: the doctor’s hands were cut off for wrong treatment. Perhaps that is why there was a shortage of doctors in the Babylonian kingdom, so ordinary people came to the aid of the sick. A man suffering from a disease would go out into the central square of the city. Passers-by would ask him what was troubling him. And those who had already had the disease and been cured would give him advice about what to do.
- The first plastic surgeries were performed in India in the 6th century BC. At that time, criminals had their noses cut off as punishment, and Indian doctors restored the lost organ by taking skin from the patient’s forehead.
- The very first reconstructive cavity surgery was performed in 49 BC. It was performed by the famous Indian surgeon Sushruta on a patient’s intestine. He cut open the patient’s abdomen and connected the damaged parts of the intestine, placing on their ends just torn off the head of a giant black ant. Apparently, the ancient doctor was aware of the antiseptic properties of formic acid.
The first surgery under general anesthesia was performed in China around 140-150 A.D.. It was performed by the most famous doctor of ancient China, Hua To. As an anesthetic, Hua To used strong wine mixed with hemp – ma fei san. Before the Communists came to power in China, Hua To’s birthday was celebrated as a national holiday.
- In ancient Greece, the electric charge produced by electric stingrays was used to treat the sick. The stingray was placed on the patient’s chest to stimulate his reflexes. And the ancient Roman physician Scribonius Largue (1st century A.D.) described the positive results of treating various chronic diseases with the help of an electric stingray.
- An easy and pleasant recipe for longevity was proposed in 1743 by the English physician John Cohazn. He claimed that a man can live to 115 years old if he inhales the smell of young girls. Kohazn recommended to mix a pound of odorous resin, 2 ounces of myrrh, aromatic balm and some other odorous herbs, to set fire to this mixture and to breathe the smoke, at the same time a young girl should be near.
- Rumors about the harm of coffee are greatly exaggerated. The Swedish King Gustav III (1746-1792) was convinced that coffee was poison. To prove it, he decided to conduct a very peculiar experiment. The experiment involved two prisoners, one drinking only coffee, and the other only tea. The test subjects were monitored by two doctors. Gustav was sure that the “coffee drinker” would die of acute poisoning. However, the first to die was… one of the doctors, followed shortly thereafter by the second doctor. A short time later Gustave himself was mortally wounded. Both prisoners lived for several more years, the first to die was the one who had been given tea.
- The first successful cornea transplant was performed by an English military surgeon in India in 1835, though not on a man, but on an antelope. He had a tame animal that had only one eye, and it was covered with scars. The doctor removed the cornea of a recently killed antelope and transplanted it into his pet. The operation was successful and the animal regained its sight.
- “Blue blood,” so they say about aristocrats. But, as it turned out, we all are aristocrats, because human blood is blue. And it becomes red when it comes in contact with oxygen, which is why the blood flows red from wounds and cuts.
- It turns out that the risk of dying living with a smoker is not that high: it is 1 in 4200. The greater probability of dying from lightning is 1 in 3,000.
- King George V of Great Britain had bronchitis at the end of his life, and his condition was extremely serious. He died on January 20, 1936 at 11:55 pm. It wasn’t until 50 years later, in 1986, that it was discovered that his life doctor, Bertrand Dawson, had administered a lethal dose of morphine and cocaine to his comatose patient. Dawson did this so that George would die before midnight: in this case the news of the king’s death would make it into the morning edition of the Times, more authoritative than the afternoon edition.
- it turns out that if a person loses his memory completely, the last thing he remembers is swearing in his native language. And in this way doctors can determine the nationality of the patient.
- At the very end of the 19th century, in 1898, a new medicine was obtained in the research laboratory of the Bayer pharmaceutical company. It relieved pain and relieved coughing. The researchers who tested the new drug on themselves, noted that it causes a powerful emotional reaction, a man feels just a hero. For this property the drug was called heroin. Until 1910, heroin was sold in pharmacies as an analgesic and cough medicine for children.