27 Crazy Images Of Medical Treatments Through History

When Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen discovered the X-ray in 1895, the New York Times was so skeptical that the paper referred to the medical breakthrough as the “alleged discovery of how to photograph the invisible.” 

It also took a long time to figure out how use the technology safely. A French physician, Dr. Maxime Menard, had to have his finger amputated when he developed cancer from frequent exposure to radiation while manning an X-ray machine. 

(In a striking juxtaposition to modern medicine, Menard smoked a cigarette while his offending finger was surgically removed.)

We forget how young modern medicine is. The fetal ultrasound wasn’t developed until 1959. ??Penicillin wasn’t discovered until 1928. And when the 1918 flu pandemic approached New York City — less than 100 years ago — top medical minds were convinced the illness arrived on waves of “bad air.” 

See how much medical treatments have changed below. 

This is what an ambulance looked like in 1881: