Nowadays, the medical community has a bit of a bad rap. Who can we trust when our beloved Dr. Oz has betrayed us yet again? Before you start pointing fingers, consider how far we've come. Many of the deeply invasive procedures today have shocking origins dating back as far as the stone age.
Brain Surgery Actually Dates Back to the Stone Age So maybe they were actually using stones and other primitive tools, but neurosurgery actually has roots in the stone age, ancient Africa, early european colonies, and the ancient Incas.
Is it just me, or is this thing disturbingly phallic?
"Brain surgery is perhaps the oldest of the practiced medical arts. There is no hard evidence suggesting a beginning to the practice of other fields of medicine such as pharmacology — using drugs, chemical and natural ingredients to help a fellow human being. There is ample evidence, however, of brain surgery, dating back to the Neolithic (late Stone Age) period. However, pre-historic evidence of brain surgery was not limited to Europe. Pre-Incan civilization used brain surgery as an extensive practice as early as 2,000 B.C. In Paracas, Peru, a desert strip south of Lima, archeologic evidence indicates that brain surgery was used extensively. Here, too, an inordinate success rate was noted as patients were restored to health. The treatment was used for mental illnesses, epilepsy, headaches, organic diseases, neuropathy treatment, osteomylitis, and for head injuries. Brain surgery was also used for both spiritual and magical reasons; often, the practice was limited to kings, priests and the nobility. Surgical tools in South America were made of both bronze and shaped obsidian (a hard, sharp-edged volcanic rock)."
Source: Brain-surgery
Needles originated in Ancient China and Were Made of Bones
Squeamish about needles? Imagine being stabbed with an actual animal bone or bamboo to get your medical treatment.
Chinese Medicine Living
These were discontinued after public opinion
concluded that "bone needle" was just too difficult to say.
"needle tools in ancient China underwent a process of from stone through bamboo, bone, ceramic to metal materials, from rough to delicate manufacture, from multiple uses of a single one to diversified structure and shapes with different functions. Making research on the developing history of needle tools from Stone Age to the Ming and Qing dynasties in its materials, craftsmanship and applications can reveal the inventive values."
Source: ncbi
Plastic Surgery Dates Back to 2000 BC
Wet Canvas
Like all great things, tiger dude dates back to the 90s.
Wikipedia
You're so vain, you probably think plastic surgery is all about... now... but actually.. It's been around for a terrifyingly long time. People have been getting nose jobs since as early as 2000 BC.
Wikipedia
"The history of plastic surgery goes as far back as 2000 B.C. In India and Egypt, ancient physicians practiced some of the most rudimentary forms of plastic surgery. According to a 1994 article in the Washington Post by Thomas V. DiBacco, reeds were used in Egyptian nose reconstruction to keep the nostrils open as the nose healed. In 600 B.C., the Indian doctor Acharya Sushrut published the Sushruta Samhita, a collection of medical texts about plastic surgery, the first of its kind in ancient history. In another part of the world, plastic surgery also experienced its earliest developments. Around the first century B.C., Roman physicians practiced early beginnings of surgical methods to alter the body. With a culture that highly valued the physique and beauty of the natural human body, ancient Roman doctors operated on former gladiators whose bodies and faces had become severely damaged. At this time, Roman medical writer Aulus Cornelius Celsus wrote "De Medicina,” which outlined some of the methods used in the practice of breast reduction and reconstruction of the ears, lips and noses – another important early text for plastic surgery. "Despite its rocky historical past, plastic surgery is a growing multi-billion industry." After the fall of Rome at the end of the third century A.D., the progress of plastic surgery appears to have stalled for several hundred years. During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the spread of Christianity forbade any kind of surgical changes to the body, as dictated by Pope Innocent III. Then, in the late 1500s, a breakthrough in plastic surgery occurred. In Sicily, Italy, Gasparo Tagliacozzi experimented with skin grafts for nose reconstructive surgery. However, Tagliacozzi’s progress was hindered by the influence of the Church. In addition, the technology of general anesthesia was still in its earliest stages at this time, which made any plastic surgery attempts extremely painful."
Source: plastic surgery
