Bizarre Medical Treatments From The Past Show How Far We’ve Come

Patients at a hospital in Germany inhaling powdered medicines such as menthol and eucalyptus to heal respiratory diseases, circa 1930.

A woman wearing a flu mask during the flu epidemic which followed the First World War, 1919.

R. Dubois anesthetizing machine in France, circa 1913.

Lieutenant Radtke presses air into his lungs in a constant height with a mercury column, while the doctor checks his blood pressure, circa 1932.

Children using a light bath in Berlin, Germany circa 1929.

A man enjoys a sun-ray lamp, circa 1930.

The new ‘hip massage machine’ from the United States, circa 1928.

Post Office Department Inspector DF Angier (left) and Dr. LF Kebler, formerly of the Food and Drug Administration, try out a stretching device which claimed to increase height by 2 to 6 inches, 1931.

A young woman holds her arms and legs in four water baths with electric current, to improve blood circulation, circa 1938.

Women operate the new stretching machine for surgical dressing at the Red Cross headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio, circa 1915.

The modern Roentgen ‘look through’ machine, which prevents any injury to the treating physician, Frankfurt, Germany, circa 1929.

A doctor wears protective clothing during an outbreak of plague in Manchuria, circa 1912.

Partially dissected cadavers on tables in the dissecting room at the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, PA, circa 1902.

Dr. Lewis Albert Sayre observes the change in the curvature of the spine as a patient self-suspends herself prior to being wrapped in a plaster of Paris bandage as part of her scoliosis treatment circa 1850-1900.