Mental Floss

MEDICINE

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The early years of the 20th century were a crucial time in the history of medicine, as breakthroughs in surgical techniques, sanitation, and scientific rigor helped doctors become far more effective at saving and improving lives. Not every theory these pi

Editorial Staff








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Since the late nineteenth century, analgesic drugs have been available to the masses to alleviate general pain, including that caused by headaches. While that might not always do the trick, it sounds a lot better than these alternative treatments from his

Chris Stokel-Walker
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Nope. Fortunately, your lungs are too large to fit through your trachea, so they’re not going to come flying out of your mouth. However, they don’t necessarily stay where they belong.

Matt Soniak






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First reported in the 1700s, the mental disorder where people suffer the nihilistic delusion that they are dead or no longer exist, that's also called "Walking Corpse Syndrome" is still a mystery.

Matt Soniak


Cynthia Goldsmith, CDC // Public Domain

We know you’re just itching to know all about some of history’s nastiest viruses and the horrifying diseases they cause in humans.

Jessica Bloustein Marshall
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Childbirth has never been a walk in the park. But thanks to modern medical improvements and societal standards, it's much better than it used to be.

Miss Cellania
Google Patents

We may think of the inability to get or maintain an erection as a problem reserved for the ruggedly handsome 50-year-old millionaires joyously piloting their yachts in the background of Viagra commercials. But there has never been a time or place where me

Therese Oneill
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Throughout the ages, people have hung some pretty weird names on what’s ailed them. Here are the monikers of a few of the more strangely-named illnesses, and how we know them today.

Kevin Kampwirth


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In 1896, chemist Arthur Eichengrün brought forth a miracle—a pure acetylsalicylic acid with medical applications. This was a few years before Lizzie Magie invented the board game Monopoly, and if only the two knew each other, they might have had a lot to

David W Brown


Open Library

Modern plastic surgery encompasses both cosmetic and reconstructive surgery, and has a history that goes much further back than our modern movie stars and beauty obsessions.

Arallyn Primm


Grand Gallimaufry

The Bubonic Plauge, also known as the Black Death, killed at least 75 million people on three continents. Described as the most lethal epidemic in history, the plague began in China in the 1330s and made its way through Europe from 1346 to 1353. In those

Bryan Dugan


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Quack, in the sense of a medical impostor, is a shortening of the old Dutch quacksalver (spelled kwakzalver in the modern Dutch), which originally meant a person who cures with home remedies, and then came to mean one using false cures or knowledge.

Matt Soniak
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Fictional characters, and even real-life folks, often talk about animals and people—particularly snarling dogs and knife-wielding lunatics—being able to “smell fear” on people. No one ever seems to be able to describe just what fear smells like, though.

Matt Soniak