Historic medical treatments quiz: Match the disease or condition to the cure.

What Ailments Were These Horrific Medical Treatments Supposed to Cure? Take Our Quiz.

What Ailments Were These Horrific Medical Treatments Supposed to Cure? Take Our Quiz.

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Health and medicine explained.
July 22 2015 5:56 AM

What Ailments Were These Horrific Medical Treatments Supposed to Cure?

The 17th century was a terrible time to suffer from apoplexy.

An itinerant surgeon extracting stones from a man's head.
An itinerant surgeon extracting stones from a man's head.

Pencil drawing by P. Quast. Image curtesy of Wellcome Library, London.

Modern medicine has come a long way from leeches and blistering, but we are still plagued by many of the same ancient ills: kidney stones, unwanted pregnancies, infections … forks to the eye.

How would these conditions have been treated before the age of anesthesia, ultrasounds, and antibiotics? As we present you with the cure (or at least, what was done to patient), match the historical treatment to the diagnosis. By the end of this quiz, you’ll know how you stack up against the medical experts in Europe and America from the 16th through 19th centuries.

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