Why in antiquity people tried to heal with stingrays (4 photos)

Now we are not surprised that electricity helps heal people. Electric shocks are used for resuscitation; some mental illnesses are treated with electric shocks. But in the past, electricity was used in quite strange ways. The fact is that even in ancient times, people paid attention to electric stingrays and, with their help, tried to cure completely different diseases.





Ancient observations

The ancient Greeks were the first to pay attention to electric stingrays. Aristotle wrote about how stingrays paralyze animals that attack them. Later, Roman scientists, using his works, came to the conclusion that current can be used for medicinal purposes. This method of treatment was prescribed, for example, for gout. In order to recover from this disease, it was necessary to stand on an electric stingray with both feet. This was noticed thanks to an accident: one of the Roman officials accidentally stepped on a stingray, and he was no longer tormented by the pain that gout brought him. The doctors decided that this case was indicative, so they prescribed such a strange method of treatment.



Strange medicines

Stingray treatment quickly became very popular, with hundreds of thousands of people undergoing it. Gradually, stingrays began to be used for other diseases. They began to treat, for example, headaches. Medicinal powders were also made from stingrays. The stingray liver was considered especially valuable, which, according to guesses, contained the largest amount of useful substances. But live stingrays were also popular. They treated not only headaches, but also toothaches, and elderly people were prescribed this unusual therapy to treat back pain.





Ban on treatment in the Middle Ages

Later, people wondered why the stingray electrocutes people. This was equated to magic, so such treatment was officially prohibited. But this did not stop people: they continued this treatment, but secretly, and because of the ban, stingray powder became very expensive. Of course, there was no evidence base that would show its effectiveness. In addition to powder, creams and ointments were made from stingrays, which were used for almost all diseases, from asthma to rheumatism. Later, this method of treatment began to be closely studied, and it turned out that such drugs are generally useless.

Around the same time, Islamic scholars discovered the effectiveness of electric shocks in the treatment of mental illnesses. This development, of course, is still used today.



All the developments that were carried out during the study of stingrays led to the fact that electricity began to be used in our time. In the twentieth century, large-scale research began on the effect of electricity on the body. Without the discoveries that were made in ancient times and the Middle Ages, modern treatment would not be possible.