It has only been a few decades since mankind has acknowledged the importance of pathology and public hygiene based on science. Before then, people often relied on methods that were often based on religious beliefs or untested ideas. Among them were some unusual methods of healing that are strange from a modern point of view. These unusual methods have always existed from ancient times to the medieval period, and most of them were based on witchcraft and superstitions. These healing methods were not only ineffective but also highly lethal to the human body. This article will focus on three infamous methods.
Bloodletting
To begin with, there was a Greek doctor named Hippocrates who claimed Humor theory, a theory saying that the human body consists of four fluids; blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. He also suggested that the ratio of these fluids is the main cause of diseases, and the only way to cure them is by controlling the ratio between them. Due to that, medieval doctors treated most internal diseases with bloodletting. Bloodletting, or exsanguination, is the extraction of blood from a patient to cure or prevent disease and illness, and most medieval doctors would conduct exsanguination with knives or leeches. The problem with this method of healing is that this can cause sepsis and tetanus due to unhygienic surgical tools and mortality due to excessive bleeding. Also, bloods that have been extracted would be thrown away and that can easily spread plague and epidemic diseases.
Mercury
As widely known, mercury is a metal in liquid form at room temperature and very lethal to the human body. However, due to its unique characteristics, most enchanters and alchemists believed that mercury was a metal with magical powers. Some even believed that mercury could make one immortal by drinking mercury or using mercury as an ointment. Unfortunately, most emperors and kings took advice from alchemists and enchanters and frequently used medicines based on mercury or cinnabar, a mineral made of sulfur and mercury. Due to that, most of them had symptoms related to mercury, such as paralysis or lunacy. For example, Ivan the Terrible, the First Tsar of Russia, strongly believed that mercury was the ultimate cure, and as indicated in his nickname, he was infamous for his lunacy. Scientists assume that his lunacy was due to mercury poisoning, and his acts are textbook examples of mercury poisoning. Also, in 1965, Russian researchers found an excessive amount of mercury from the joints of his corpse (Gerasimov, 1965).
Healing Stones
It was common for enchanters, doctors, and alchemists to believe that fossils or gemstones, such as ruby, agate, amber or emerald, have special properties that would heal or prevent illness or enchant the bearer’s mind and body. Medieval Europeans believed that eating powdered emeralds would prevent the Black Death. Hildegard von Bingen, a German Benedictine abbess active as a writer, composer, philosopher and medical writer, claimed that different gemstones had different powers that would heal different diseases in her writing Physica (Bingen, 1150). However, most of the methods were ineffective, as they were supposed to be, as the only kind of stone that possessed power was the radioactive minerals. Also, it was not only ineffective but lethal in the long term at the same time because patients would not receive proper medical treatment other than healing stones due to economic problems it caused with its cost.
Modern medicines have improved dramatically since the last century based on the scientific revolution and development of X-ray technology. However, the existence of modern medicine is enabled due to the numerous trials and errors by the doctors of the past. Although the methods mentioned above might seem hilarious or ridiculous, modern standards cannot be applied to them. These methods were the best that the doctors could do and that were available for the patients.
Reference
Hippocrates, Chadwick, J., Lloyd, G.E.R. and Mann, W.N. (1983). Hippocratic Writings. Harmondsworth Penguin Books.
Anon, (n.d.). Герасимов М.М. “Документальный портрет Ивана Грозного” | Либерея “Нового Геродота.” [online] Available at: http://liberea.gerodot.ru/a_quest/gerasimov01.htm [Accessed 11 Dec. 2021].
Hildegard, S. (2001). Hildegard’s healing plants : [from her medieval classic Physica]. Boston: Beacon Press.
