8 Shocking Medical Treatments You Won’t Believe Used to Be Mainstream

It’s hard to imagine in our era of robotic surgeries, evidence-based medicine, and genetic testing, but up until a century ago, doctoring meant mostly guesswork and experimentation. Now, these so-called treatments from medicine’s past seem laughable (or downright horrifying).

By Wendy Glauser

Thinkstock

Cocaine

Cocaine was legal until the 1920s and many famous people, from Thomas Edison to Sigmund Freud, were addicted. After Freud sent some powder to his friend, Carl Koller, the Viennese surgeon licked it off his finger and noticed his tongue became numb. He experimented with it in the lab and on animals and eventually used it as a local anesthetic during an eye operation in 1884. The ‘medicine’ was widely used by surgeons and dentists for decades.

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8 Shocking Medical Treatments You Won’t Believe Used to Be Mainstream

Cocaine

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10 Simple Habits That Can Make You Feel Your Healthiest

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5 Fairly Astounding Ways Giving Is Good For Your Health

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