27 Medical Pics From The Past That Might Make You Glad Modern Science Is So Good

This photograph captures a pivotal moment in medical history, showing Drs. Harry Meyer Jr. and Paul Parkman with scientist Hope Hopps at the National Institutes of Health. In this lab, the team successfully isolated the rubella virus and developed a crucial blood test to determine immunity. Their groundbreaking work in the 1960s directly led to the creation of the rubella vaccine, which has since prevented millions of birth defects and virtually eliminated the disease in many parts of the world.

This 1955 photograph shows a patient using a portable respirator, a significant advancement from the massive "iron lung" chambers used during the polio epidemic. The device, consisting of a chest plate connected by a hose to a bedside pump, allowed patients with paralyzed respiratory muscles to breathe. This innovation offered a greater degree of freedom and the possibility of recuperating in the comfort of their own homes rather than being confined to a hospital ward.

During the German occupation of the Netherlands, Dutch physician Willem Kolff invented the first functioning artificial kidney machine, a groundbreaking device for treating kidney failure. Fearing the German authorities would confiscate his life-saving invention, Kolff and his team famously hid the bulky, rotating-drum dialysis machines in the hospital garden at Kampen.

In the early 20th century, a bizarre and dangerous weight-loss trend involved intentionally ingesting tapeworms. People would swallow sanitized pills containing a tapeworm egg, hoping the parasite would hatch and consume the food in their intestines, leading to weight loss without dieting. The practice was incredibly risky, often causing severe malnutrition, abdominal pain, and other serious health complications instead of the desired results.

These are the bizarre and terrifying outfits worn by plague doctors during the 17th-century outbreaks. The most famous feature is the long, bird-like mask, which was stuffed with herbs and spices to purify the "bad air" thought to cause the disease. A long wax-covered gown, gloves, and a wide-brimmed hat were meant to protect the doctor from head to toe, creating a grim figure that became a symbol of the Black Death itself.

French neurologist Guillaume Duchenne is seen using electrical probes to stimulate the facial muscles of a patient. Duchenne believed that specific muscles were linked to distinct emotions, and by applying these currents, he could artificially induce expressions like joy, fear, and pain.

This photograph from around 1929 showcases an early Roentgen X-ray machine at a German institute. This cumbersome setup was a necessary precaution against the constant exposure to harmful radiation, a poorly understood but increasingly recognized threat in the pioneering days of medical imaging.

This 1960 photograph captures a strange experiment at the RAF Institute of Aviation Medicine. Dr. G. H. Byford is shown wearing a contact lens fitted with a miniature lamp while standing beneath a rotating optokinetic drum. The setup was designed to study the involuntary reflex movements of the eye and understand how visual illusions could affect a pilot's perception and stability during flight.

This strange-looking device is a 19th-century lithotomy crutch, used to hold a patient in a vulnerable and excruciating position for bladder stone surgery. Before the operation, a surgeon would strap the patient's ankles into the cuffs and hoist their legs up toward their ears to get the best access to the bladder. The invasive and unanesthetized procedure that followed was notoriously painful and had an incredibly high mortality rate.

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