33 Unusual Old Remedies - mental_floss List Show Ep. 327 | Mental Floss

Hi, I'm John Green. Welcome to my salon. This is Mental Floss on YouTube

And did you know that bird poop was once used as a remedy for burns

In one 17th century manual, the author claims the best way to cure a burn is by mixing groundsel, house leak, goose dung, chicken dung, and boar's grease

Then you apply it to your burn, you're good as new. Anyway, that's the first of many unusual old remedies that I'm going to share with you in this video today

Another bird-related remedy came from the Roman Pliny the Elder. He recommended that if you have a hangover, the best way to cure it is by eating two raw

owl's eggs, or a deep-fried canary. The ancient Greeks also swore by the owl egg hangover cure, but they threw in some sheep

lungs as well. And if you think that's gross, you would not have fit in well in the old Wild West

where rabbit droppings were a common hangover cure. In the early 1900s, doctors treated people with syphilis by giving them malaria, and then

and they cured the malaria with quinine. When syphilis first came to Europe in the 15th century, by the way, it was cured with mercury

Unsurprisingly, many patients then died of mercury poisoning. And mercury wasn't just used as a medicine

The ancient Chinese used liquid mercury in an attempt to lengthen one's life

Terrible plan. In the 1800s, people started using sulfur as a laxative, which is actually quite effective

In medieval Western Europe, people used skull-capped plant seeds as headache cures

Scholars think this was because the seeds looked like skulls, and Christians at the time believed that God created objects to look like their intended usage

But by the 17th century the French had taken it a bit more literally and were said to wear actual skull caps made of lead to cure headaches Which is a great way to get lead poisoning And speaking of poison in China arsenic has been a common medicine for over 5 years although it rarely used anymore

For a time, though, in the West, it was used to treat syphilis and parasites and leukemia

All ineffectively. And speaking of the ancient Chinese, they often used ground tiger bones in their medicine for diseases like rheumatism and arthritis

Nowadays this practice is banned and tiger hunting is illegal, but there's still a black market for the product

Shifting from horrific to merely gross, people have been partaking in urine therapy for over 5,000 years

and many people still believe that washing your face with urine can treat acne

After the Europeans brought catnip to the Americas in the 18th century, a few Native American tribes used it to treat colic in children

And in Elizabethan England, mice were used as remedies for many different afflictions, including whooping cough, smallpox, and bedwetting

Also, they felt that cutting a mouse in half and applying it to a wart would cure the wart

To cure erectile dysfunction, the ancient Egyptians would grind crocodile hearts and then apply them to the penis

Between the 12th and 17th centuries, many Europeans were treated with a cure-all known as mummy powder

which is exactly what it sounds like, ground-up dead bodies. They were technically supposed to be actual mummies, but some apothecaries would take whatever body they could get

According to a set of treatises published by the Dutch Society of Sciences in the late 18th century

a good way to cure a headache is by getting shocked by electric eels

In the 1755 book Primitive Physic by John Wesley he writes that the best way to recover from an asthma attack is by eating only boiled carrots for two weeks Well you certainly get your vitamin A you probably lose some weight you might turn orange I don know there are worse fates And there have been far worse suggestions for curing asthma including cigarettes

Physicians often recommended smoking medicated cigarettes as a solution to asthma in the 19th and 20th centuries

Around that same time, liquid heroin was being widely sold commercially as a cure for substance addiction to morphine

In fact, it was produced by the company Bayer, as in the Bayer Aspirin company that we know today

There was also something known as LSD therapy in the 1950s and 60s

Psychologists hoped that it could be a cure for mental illness, and over 40,000 patients went through psychedelic drug therapy before the drugs were banned for medical use

In the 19th century, to cure sprains, people would boil four live frogs until soft, discard the frogs, and use the cooking water mixed with butter as an ointment

I don't know if that's going to make your sprained ankle better, but it sounds delicious. An old remedy for a sore throat? To wrap hot bacon around your throat

Wait, did someone say bacon? Torch-chop party fund! In ancient Greece, sometimes dogs were used in the medical process

Physicians would have them lick the open wounds of their patients. Licorice was used in ancient Rome for stomach, liver, kidney, and bladder disorders

Modern studies have shown that the root, which is used to make the candy, actually does have medicinal properties

It might help with atopic dermatitis and neuro-generative disorders, but not, sadly, with the plague

One way that medieval Europeans tried to cure the plague was by eating a spoonful of crushed emeralds

Eh, whatever, just made for fancier mummy powder down the line. Anyway many Native American tribes used tobacco as a medicine for centuries It was supposed to treat many disorders including rheumatism colds and intestinal problems Fire cupping is a practice that has been done in China since probably around 1000 BCE to

cure things like bronchitis and colds. Cups are used to create suction on the skin and

the cups are heated up with fire. In 20th century Norfolk, it wasn't unusual for people to keep potatoes in their pockets

to prevent rheumatism, and other European cultures sometimes used rotten apples to relieve

the symptoms of rheumatism. In the South Pacific Islands, the kava plant has been used for centuries to treat everything

from gout to gonorrhea. And after studies showed a link between kava and liver damage, the EU and several countries

banned it. Other studies later indicated that those liver damage studies were wrong, and so a few countries

made it legal again. But kava exists in a legal limbo in much of the world

In the 1500s, it was illegal for a physician to conduct surgery on a patient without first

calculating the position of the moon. And finally, I return to my salon to tell you the truth about snake oil

We know it as a disparaging term, meaning a fake remedy, but it actually means a lot

more in the context of Asian history. The ancient Chinese used it long before it was brought to the U.S. and got a bad reputation

It was made from Chinese water snakes, meaning it was rich in omega-3 acids

So it was successful at treating things like arthritis and joint pain

Thanks for watching Menoplas here on YouTube, which is made with the help of all of these nice people

I wonder what they'll be saying about Pepto-Bismol in a hundred years. Can you believe that people once ate pink chalk in order to feel better

Anyway, as we say in my hometown, don't forget to be awesome