We’ve all heard the horror stories of people being buried alive and leaving claw marks in the coffin, but doctors-of-old did work hard to ensure their patient was in fact dead. Unfortunately, the technology was a little spotty at best—to evaluate a patient’s death, doctors would often resort to strange measures, including burning a patient’s arm, pulling her tongue or literally blowing smoke in her butt.
These tests led to the creation of some rather terrible jobs in the morgue. Over at Boing Boing, the community is discussing which method would be the most effective. The conversation is short so far, but already pretty amusing.
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bad url…
posted by Rosemary on 10-15-2009 at 11:29 am
URL seems to be working fine here…
posted by Jason English on 10-15-2009 at 11:34 am
Here too.
posted by Jill Harness on 10-15-2009 at 11:54 am
Any count on how many people this actually WORKED on? As boring as this job is for the living and as painful as it sounds for those possibly undead, the methods used for keeping people alive really weren’t much better. Between lancings and leeches, I’d take a twisted tongue or a bum full of smoke!
If you ever find yourself transported back to the 18th century, never tell a doctor you have a migraine. The cure for this was to tie a string to a leach and stick it up your nose and let it bleed your brain. Better hope that’s a strong string!
posted by Hastings on 10-15-2009 at 12:36 pm
I have a blood disease call Hemochromatosis, basically my body can’t get rid of iron as a normal person does…the treatment, blood letting! That’s right, it’s the only way to get the iron out of my blood and keep it from being deposited in my vital organs.
Looks like those wacky doctors were on to something with leaches.
posted by graham on 10-15-2009 at 1:50 pm
graham, my father had the same disease.
posted by Vickey on 10-15-2009 at 6:26 pm