The quackery cures of yesteryear: From doctors giving women orgasms to cure their ‘hysteria’ to cocaine to sooth toothache and tobacco enemas to revive drowning victims

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It was not unusual for Victorian women to be given orgasms by their doctors – in a bid to cure them of their ‘hysteria’, a common problem said to affect three in four.

Cocaine was also once used to soothe tooth pain – and was famously an ingredient in Coca Cola – while tobacco enemas were a form of first aid given to revive drowning victims in the 18th century.

These and many more weird and wacky medical remedies from the past that were once considered the norm have been revealed in a new book, Quackery: A Brief History Of The Worst Ways To Cure Everything.

The tome also reveals how strychnine – used in rat poison – was the Victorian’s answer to Viagra to treat impotence and in Medieval times, women believed carrying weasel testicles in their bosom worked as a contraceptive.

The tapeworm diet was all the rage in the 1800s while executioners made a pretty penny off the skin and fat of deceased criminals in the grim medicinal trade for human parts during the 17th and 18th centuries. 

Here below MailOnline reveals what our poor ancestors endured before science-based medicine came along.

e08f2378a2fe88347e38416ae72f0347 The quackery cures of yesteryear: From doctors giving women orgasms to cure their 'hysteria' to cocaine to sooth toothache and tobacco enemas to revive drowning victims

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