5 terrific surgical instruments of History (photo)

December 21, 2014  19:21

The level of medical advancement we’ve seen over the past 500-plus years has been astronomical. Just look at how Europeans handled the Black Death, aka the plague, when it came off Genoese trading ships in 1374, and spread indiscriminately throughout the continent. The plague killed over 20 million people — almost a third of the population. Before their death people suffered from painful black swellings of various sizes under the armpits and in the groin. These eventually began to seep blood and pus, after which the patient would have a fever, diarrhea, aches and pains; and eventually, they’d die.

At that time scientists had no idea at the time that the disease was caused by the bacteria Yersina pestis, and therefore, how to stop it was out of the question. One doctor, for example, believed “instantaneous death occurs when the aerial spirit escaping from the eyes of the sick man strikes the healthy person standing near and looking at the sick.” But during medical actions medics used to try unproven and crude techniques like bloodletting or boil-lancing — literally stabbing the boil, which can even cause the infection to spread.

However, to reach the level now we have we had to make mistakes, and experiment, just a little bit.

Here are 5 medical instruments which are quite terrifying.

 

1. This instrument was used around the early 1600s in pre-modern Europe. By the help of it medics cut circular holes in patients’ skulls in attempts to treat epileptic seizures and skull fractures, as well as more trivial conditions like mental illnesses.

 

 2. This bear trap-looking thing was put around penises in the UK in the late 1800s. It was believed at the time that masturbation, as well as wet dreams, were a symptom of a condition calle“spermatorrhea” or “seminal weakness.” It was also believed that a man’s sperm was one source of his energy. So, to completely prevent the possibility of an erection, men wore these to bed. And should their penises get an erection, the spikes would remind it that it was making a mistake. Today, we all know this is just false. (But, maybe not in our nightmares.)

3.  This instrument was used around 1866. It was used used to perform the common tonsillectomy, a procedure that removes the tonsils to prevent recurrent throat infections. Today, the procedure involves anesthetizing a patient before burning the base of the tonsils with electricity.

4. Circumcisions are a common procedure performed on newborns and adults in the U.S., and around the world. They’re done for religious purposes (mostly Judaism) as well as hygienic and health-related purposes — it’s believed to make the penis easier to wash, and it decreases the risk of urinary tract infections and STDs. 

 It’s pretty hard to imagine the roughly 81 percent of men who got circumcisions between the ages of 14 and 59 would have gone through with one using this knife, though. In Europe, this particular one was used between 1775 and 1785, because masochism.

 5. Around the late 1700s when someone had to pull his teeth, he/or she had to experience a very painful operation.  Using this instrument, the dentist would twist and turn the key, like a key, until the tooth was (painfully) pulled out, root and all.

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