Top 10 Terrifying Medical Instruments In History

 10. Tobacco Smoke Enema Kit - 18th Century 

Have you ever heard the expression,  

"Don't blow smoke up my..[you know what]"? Well,  guess what!? I think I found out exactly where  

that expression comes from - because this tool  is designed to do exactly that! Hysterically, it  

looks exactly like a bellow you'd use to blow air  into a fire, but let's get past that. Apparently,  

the indigenous peoples of North America  were the first to blow smoke up each other,  

and their own butts, for exactly how long, we're  not sure. What we do know is that in the 1700s,  

Europeans saw how much fun the indigenous  people were having blowing smoke up their butts,  

so they started blowing smoke up their butts,  too. Then, figuratively, the Europeans blew smoke  

up the indigenous peoples' butts, but that's  a topic for a different day. This was normal  

behavior up until 1811, when Benjamin Brodie  demonstrated - by the way this article is going,  

we're guessing by blowing smoke up animals'  butts and then dissecting them - that nicotine,  

in a nutshell, should not be blown  up yours, or anyone else's butts. 

9. Iron Lung - 20th Century 

Since the polio vaccine has been in the  news recently, you might have seen one of these  machines 

before. These were the first life-support  machines and were used for keeping those with  polio alive, 

sometimes for even decades. 

With  polio, the muscles you use to breathe become  paralyzed and you basically suffocate to death.  

This machine is an airtight chamber with an air  pump that would force your lungs to expand and  

contract to allow you to breathe. Sometimes it was  a way to help cure patients, while for others it  

was the only way of life possible, observing life  from within a metal tube at all times. Despite  

seeming like ancient history, at least 2 people  in the United States are known to still use one. 

8. Bullet Extractor - 16th Century 

Back in the 9th-century when gunpowder  changed the game of war, it was necessary to have  a way

 to fight back or at least recover from some  

of these near-fatal wounds. Enter: the bullet  extractor. Fast forward to the 16th-century,  

and this device was invented, although it  was more ambitious than it was effective,  

since it really only extracted bullets close to  the surface of the skin. It wasn’t an on-the-field  

kind of device, but rather something used  by surgeons to get into a bullet wound,  

pierce the bullet with a screw, and then pull it  out. To add, it had a little decorative handle,  

because you can’t be a medic without some pizazz. 

7. Hippocratic Bench - 5th Century BC

source-science source

 A dislocated joint is probably one of the least  dangerous, but most uncomfortable injuries people  

can experience. It always comes as a shock, and  as an added bonus, you have to think about setting  

it back into place, and that's generally painful.  The fix for this type of injury has been invented  

and adjusted since the 5th Century BC, when  Hippocrates developed the oldest known method.  

The patient would lie on a bench at an adjustable  angle, and ropes would be tied around their arms,  

legs and feet, depending on the treatment needed.  Controlled by winches, the ropes would be pulled  

apart, correcting any curvature in the spine or  separating an overlapping fracture. As history  

goes, this invention did both good and bad,  having paved the wave for both modern orthopedics,  

and the torture device known as "the rack". 

6. Artificial Leech - 19th Century 

source-mddionline

There was a time when “bad blood” wasn’t just  a Taylor Swift album or a term for having beef  

with someone. It was actually what you called  having some sort of unexplained illness. So  

to clean people of their bad blood - through an  act known as "bloodletting" - doctors progressed  

from stabbing their patients, to using live  leeches, to using artificial ones, instead.  

Enter the year 1840. This blood-pumping device  consisted of rotating blades that would cut  

wounds into a patient’s skin, and a cylinder would  produce a vacuum effect to suck out the infection.  

I think I would actually prefer real leeches. 

5. Trephine - 17th Century 

One of the scariest on this list is the  Trephine, a 17th-Century device invented to  

cut into your head, if you for any reason were  having issues. Even a headache could lead you to  

this uncomfortable procedure during which a doctor  would cut a hole into your skull to expose the  

brain’s outer layer. It was basically a manual  drill which you’d turn to open a hole deeper  

and deeper into your head. Though very brutal  sounding, a similar device is still used today for  

certain procedures. The key difference being that  today, you're probably under anesthesia. I'm sure  

that probably helps with the pain a little. 

4. Hemorrhoid Forceps - 19th Century 

It’s getting real uncomfortable real fast  when you pull out the hemorrhoid forceps,  

no matter if you're packin' a hemorrhoid or  not. Since Preparation H and a nice fuzzy donut  

pillow weren't invented yet, people didn't really  have much of a choice for discomfort. Enter, the  

Hemorrhoid Forceps. First, a patient would bend  over, then with the hemorrhoid forceps tightly  

grasp and restrict blood supply to the hemorrhoid  until the tissue died and fell off. If the  

hemorrhoid was on the inside, doctors would use a  hook to pull it out and then cauterize or snip it  

off. Aren't you glad we have a cream now that can  make them go away rather painlessly in a few days? 

3. The Stricture Divulsor - 19th Century 

source-scoopwhoop

The stricture divulsor was used inside men’s  

urethras when they became too narrow to urinate  properly. It would go in through the tip of the  

penis to the problematic part of the urethra.  Once it was placed, the screw on the handle  

was turned to separate the blades and dilate the  urethra. They much preferred erring on the side of  

dilating too much than too little and would often  push to the point of ripping. Seeing blood after  

was considered a good sign. The patients would be  awake the whole time, with some opting to turn the

  screw themselves, making the surgery last longer. 

2. Dental Key - 18th Century 

Dental procedures always seem to be some of  the most medieval in their practices and tools. Back

 when cavities and gum diseases were a mystery  to doctors, people would seek help from people as  

inexperienced in medicine as barbers to  relieve the pain caused by sugary foods.  

Teeth operations were some of the most painful  procedures, especially using these dental keys,  

which would clamp the problematic tooth. The  key was then rotated and the tooth levered  

out of the roots. Since this was all done  without any anesthetic, many would prefer  

extended tooth pain over surgery. 

1. Amputation saw - 19th Century  

Thankfully, the original chainsaw - invented  in the 1830s by Scottish doctors John Aitken  

and James Jeffray - is far from what you'd  pick up at Home Depot to cut your neighbor’s,  

I mean your own trees down with. The chainsaw  was originally used for Symphysiotomies, an  

outdated surgical procedure where cartilage of the  pubic symphysis is divided to widen the pelvis,  

in order to deliver a newborn more safely.  It was common practice up until the 1930s,  

when Caesarean sections drastically became more  safe. By the 1950s it was considered taboo,  

but was still carried out knowingly and  unknowingly until as late as the 1980's. 

Thanks for watching! You are brave indeed!  Before you go, be sure to clamp down on the  

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Leave a comment about which of these medical  devices and procedures you’d least like to  

endure. And be sure to give this video a like. (hmm, I wonder if blowing smoke up your butt  

gives you puffy cheeks? All I know is that I want  

to be out of the way when the  smoke clears! Just sayin’!)