Creepy things and everyday norms from the past that can shock a modern person. Creepy things in history that humiliated women

1: My daughter had an imaginary friend named Sally, she told me once about how Sally was in jail for chopping her mom’s head off…
My daughter has an imaginary friend named Sally who once told me about how Sally went to jail for cutting off her mother's head...

2: My daughter when we were home alone one night, “mommy, who’s that man on the ceiling?”
My daughter, when we were alone at home at night: "Mom, who is this person on the ceiling?"

3: “The shadow man keeps talking to me at my window.”
"The shadow man still talks to me through the window."

4: I was reading a story to my daughter when she suddenly slammed it shut, point to the empty doorway, and screamed “you get out of here! You've killed enough people!"
I was reading a story to my daughter when she suddenly slammed the book shut, pointing at the empty doorway, and yelled, "Get out of here! You've killed enough people!"

5: “Daddy, when can we get rid of that kid hanging in my closet?” I asked her what she was talking about and she told me all about a teenage boy who was hanging by a belt around his neck in her closet. I went to her closet there was nothing there, and she said he only is there when I'm not around.
"Daddy, when can we get rid of that baby hanging in my closet?" I asked her what she was talking about and she told me about a teenager who hung himself in her closet with a belt. I went to the closet, but there was no one there, and she said that he appears there when I am not around.

6: “There are three dead kids buried in our back yard. They told me where we can find them.”
Three children are buried in our backyard. They told me where we can find them.

7: “Mommy, there’s a kid covered in blood in my bedroom and he won’t go away.”
"Mom, there's a bloodied baby in my bedroom and he won't leave."

10: My 3 year old daughter stood next to her new born brother and looked at him for awhile then turned and looked at me and said, "Daddy its a monster..we should bury it."
My 3-year-old daughter stood next to her newborn brother and looked at him for a while, then turned to me and said: "Dad, this is a monster ... we should bury him."

11: I was tucking in my two year old. He said "Good bye dad." I said, "No, we say good night." He said "I know. But this time its good bye."
Had to check on him a few times to make sure he was still there.
I covered my two year old son with a blanket. He said:

Farewell, dad.

No, you need to say, " Good night", I corrected him.

He replied:

I know. But this time it's goodbye.

I had to check several times to make sure it was still there.

12: "Go back to sleep, there isn't anything under your bed".

"He's behind you now".
Still haven't gotten over that one and shiver at the memory.
Sleep, no one is under the bed.

I still remember it with trepidation

13: My mom likes to tell this story: Apparently when I was 5 or 6 I told her that aliens had stolen her real son, and replaced him with me, an exact copy. Someday, I would return to my home planet.

But she should not be sad, because her real son lives well in our zoo.

14: "Daddy, remember that time we died?"
"Daddy, remember how we died?"

15: “The person who lives in our mirror always smiles at me. But when you come in, he becomes angry.” Michael, 4 years old.

16: My little sister, she is 5, was lying with me on the bed, and suddenly she said: "I can break your neck, and you know that I know how."

17: “You are very good, mother. I hope no one kills you today."

18: My pregnant friend came to visit us at the eighth month. We sit in the living room, drink tea. My four-year-old son comes in and starts asking his friend if there is a baby in her stomach. She replies yes, really. He, making a very serious face, gets up from the sofa and goes to the kitchen, saying at the same time: “Then you need to pull him out. We'll need a knife." We fell out.

19: - Mom, can I take your phone to take a picture of the birds in the yard?
- Certainly.
- They are so beautiful! I wish I could kill them all and hang them on the wall!
- WHAT??!!!
- Well, Mom, everything is in order! It's just for decorating our house!

20: My four-year-old daughter once said to me, “Mommy, when you die, I want to put you in glass jar so that you are always with me and I can always see you! To which my six-year-old son replies to her: “This is stupid. Where can you find such a big jar?"

21: My wife got our two-year-old baby out of the crib in the morning. He stared at her belly and she asked him what was wrong. To this he said, "I'm just looking at my little sister in your belly." Then we only laughed at the children's imagination, but later we found out that the wife was pregnant, and that day it was only the second week. And yes, the ultrasound showed it was a girl.

22: My three-year-old niece asked my wife to stand in the middle of the room and dance. She began to dance, and the niece climbed into the closet and began to watch through a small gap.

23: I’m riding in a minibus, sitting opposite is a cute two-year-old girl with huge eyes and her mother. We drive past the square named after Ivan Fomin. The girl suddenly becomes very animated and shouts at the whole minibus: “Look, look, mom!”, pointing out the window.
- What is there?
- Well, there they are! What can't you see? There are a lot of them!
- Shh, you can't scream like that, honey. And who is there?
The girl picks up the word, finally gives out - hyenas!
- Hyenas?
- Hyenas and jackals!
- Terrible, perhaps?
- No. People are afraid of them, but in vain. I am not afraid of them. I even ironed them. They have this nose.
Shows a nose like an anteater or an elephant.
Sits happy. I'm sitting "in a drop". We are coming to the Light. Before getting off the bus, he looks out the glass and says: "Oh, and there are these dogs. Only there are not many of them here."

24: "Remember how we died, dad?" remembered the incident. My son was less than 3 years old, just started talking. I asked him: "Where were you when you were not born?" And around the same time, "Son, why are you so sad?" "You know mom, I used to know everything, but now I don't know anything"

25: When I was with my cousins. I stayed overnight because their parents were leaving. One was 2 and the other was 5 years old. In the evening, when I was putting to bed, they asked me to close the window and draw the curtains tightly, because their friend was afraid that he would be taken away. To my logical question what kind of friend this was, they told me that I would not be able to see him. And they refused to discuss this topic anymore. They live on the 10th floor, and if truth be told, it was creepy.

26: Once we were walking in the park next to memorial cemetery. it was winter, evening, dark, snow was falling. no one around, only we are such heroes. and suddenly my child, sitting quietly in the carriage, suddenly began to laugh, pointing his finger in the direction of the burial grounds. "a woman, there is a woman" - he told us and burst into laughter. we set aside a couple of bricks and quickly moved home.
even a kid at that time liked to stand on the windowsill and communicate with someone he saw outside the window. and we live on the 9th floor.

27: And at the age of 5 I got everyone with stories about a Yakut princess who was forcibly married, she was sad and became a river. Where I got this from no one knows.

28: My son (about six years old) asked his grandmother to lie on her stomach, after which he sat on her ass and began to jump up and down on her, shouting: “Now we mate like reptiles!”. Thank you Discovery Channel!

29: One night after pulling our two-year-old daughter out of the tub, my wife and I gave her a briefing on the importance of keeping her genitals clean. She replied: "No one scratches me there. They already tried one night. They broke down the door and tried, but I resisted. I died and now I'm here." She spoke of it as if it were some kind of trifle.

30: "So I'm not allowed to throw it into the fire?" - three-year-old daughter, holding her little brother in her arms.

31: I was already sound asleep, and around six in the morning I was awakened by my four-year-old daughter, whose face was a few centimeters from mine. She looked me straight in the eye and whispered, "I want to take off all your skin." The backstory is that last week I got sunburned and my skin started to peel off. However, in a half-asleep state, I was somewhat frightened. I could not understand what was happening: is it a dream or reality?

32: - Why are you crying?

Bad uncle.

What bad uncle?

He points to a dark corner behind me.

As soon as I turned around, the lamp on the bookshelf near the dark corner fell off.

That night my daughter slept in our bed.

33: My three-year-old son is usually cheerful and carefree, so it's strange.

Sometimes when he hugs his mom, he says quite seriously: "Mommy, I promise, I will never chew your bones. I promise."

Absolutely no idea where he got it.

34: My friend's child said to him, "Daddy, I love you so much that I want to cut off your head and carry it with me so that I can look at you whenever I want."

35: Recently I was riding a bus and it stopped at a roadside clinic. The little girl sitting in front of me turned to her father and said, "Death is a doctor for the poor." Something like this.

Dad: "What do you mean?"

Me: "Aren't we going to nail kittens to them?"

Dad: (after a short silence) "We're not going to do that."

37: My niece was sitting on the couch with a strange expression on her face. Her mother asked what she was thinking about and she replied, "I imagine bloody waves crashing down on me."

38: I jokingly asked, "What The best way find a girlfriend?"

The answer of a seven-year-old child: "Tell her: be my girlfriend or you will never see your parents again."

39. My best friend Lena died during my pregnancy. When my daughter was 3 years old, she laughed at something. I asked what was so funny about it, to which she replied that Aunt Lena was playing with her and making funny faces.

40. When my child was 4 years old, we watched a documentary about the Titanic. In one scene they showed the boiler room. And then the son said: “Everything is wrong here - the boilers were on this side, and I was standing here. That's why I don't like water."

41. Once my son said to me in a friendly tone: "Don't worry, mom, I won't kill you."

42. When my brother was little, he pretended all the time that angels were talking to him. Once, my mother heard him say: “I can’t kill him, this is my only dad.”

43. Once our little son climbed into our bed and started crying. When we asked what happened, he said that a big fat man with a bloody hole in his head was trying to get through his window.

44. One day, when I was helping my daughter get dressed, she started laughing. To my questions about what was the reason for her fun, the girl said that the man made her laugh. I asked: "Which man?" “The one with the snake around its neck,” she said, pointing to the closet. I turned around but didn't see anyone. Now I am afraid to learn the history of the house, as I have suspicions that someone could hang himself in this closet.

45. I ripped off the skin from my shoulders, which had peeled off, because I was very sunburnt. My daughter asked me to give her pieces of skin so that she could put them in a jar and save them. The baby said that after my death she would make a mother's mask so that I would always be there.

46. That night I let my three-year-old son into my bed, my husband was not at home. There was deathly silence around, and then my son whispers: “You will be where I want, and now I will eat you!”

47. My little brother had an imaginary friend named Roger who lived under the table in our living room with his wife and 9 kids. This went on for three years, until one day my brother informed us that Roger was no longer with us - he shot himself and his family.

48. Once my three-year-old son could not get up for breakfast. To my question about whether he slept well, he replied: “It’s bad, Grandpa Bernd didn’t let me sleep all night, he pinched my toes.” Grandfather Bernd, our father, died before the birth of the child, and in this way he used to wake my brother and me in the morning.

49. One day I was putting my two-year-old son to bed and he said to me: "Goodbye, dad." I said that it was correct to say "good night" and not "goodbye", to which he replied: "No, this time it's goodbye."

50. I was with my sister, her husband and their 2 year old daughter. We remembered those who are not with us (our father recently passed away). The sister's husband brought a photograph of his mother, who died when he was six. When the nephew saw the photo, she exclaimed: "Oh, she sings to me!". I shake every time I remember this.

51. We pass by the cemetery, and my 3-year-old son casually says: "My brother is lying there." I reminded him that he never had and never had a brother. And he said: "No, mother, still the same. When the other mother was my mother."

52. When my son was little, I taught him how to grow potatoes. She explained to him how to plant it in the ground, and how it grows out of it. And the son said: "Mom, I know all this, I did it when I was an old man."

53. We are driving down a dark road. We drive for a long time, about 10 hours. My son, 4 years old, then falls into a dream, then wakes up. Suddenly he shudders, covers his face and shouts: "MOM, I DO NOT WANT A GLASS IN THE FACE!". A few seconds later, a truck flies out of the oncoming lane, I barely have time to react, and we miraculously do not collide.

54. Standing in line with my son. Suddenly he puts his arms around my waist and starts talking to my stomach. I'm asking:

– What are you?

- I'm talking to the baby.

- With which? There is no one there.

“Yes, I just saw him crawl across the floor and get into you.”

What the hell?!

55. My sister with two children had a serious accident. The machine is soft-boiled, not a scratch on the children. When my grandmother came to the hospital to pick them up, she asked what had happened. They said that when it became scary and loud, big people who were with them in the car, hugged them and held them tightly.

56. My four year old has an imaginary friend named John. He has been with him for a long time, but yesterday the child came up and said: "Big John says he loves you" ... and left. He could not know that I had a grandfather, who was called Big John in the family, and he died long before my son was born ...

57. My son is 5 years old. He somehow approached me and asked when he would be 23. I replied that after 18 years. To which he said: "I hope this time when I'm 23, I won't die. I was that old last time."

58. My mother told me that I often visited my grandmother when I was a child. And every time, leaving, she said to her: "God keeps you" (we have a religious family). So one day I said instead of the usual "God keeps you" - "Go with God." I was corrected, but I insisted on these words. Grandma passed away that night...

59. My best friend died. I was inconsolable ... I came home from the funeral and burst into tears in the kitchen. My 8-year-old daughter came up and said: "Don't be upset, mom, there she is, right next to you." I still get goosebumps when I remember this...

60. When my nephew was five, he once held out a cookie, as if to treat, but when I reached out to take it, he said that he was not treating me, but the person next to me. There was no one around.

61. My 8-year-old daughter once said to me: "Mom, I love you, but I'm not sure that you are always you." I asked: "How is that? Who am I?" And she said, "Well, sometimes I feel like you're my mother, and sometimes it feels like someone is just wearing your skin." Like this.

62. We take a bath. Three-year-old daughter is splashing, having fun, as always. Suddenly he stops, looks at me seriously and says: "Mom, if you bite off all my fingers and eat them, I won't love you anymore!"

63. I woke up from the fact that my child climbed on top of me and looked straight into my face. She asked what she was doing. She replied that she had come to protect me from "big glowing eyes who looked at me while I slept.

64. I sat here with the child of my friends, looked after while my parents went to the movies. Then she looked at me and said in a whisper: "We are not alone here."

65. Waking me up in the middle of the night younger sister and says: "Do you hear THIS? Do you hear how THEY are talking?" There was deathly silence.

66. I had many miscarriages before my daughter was born. Naturally, I did not advertise it. One day my daughter came up to me and said: "I dreamed about your other children and said that you are a good mother."

67. Before my mother gave birth to my sister, she had a miscarriage. When my sister was already 3 years old, she asked to celebrate her birthday not in September, but in January. My mother and I calculated that this would be the term of that pregnancy. We didn't tell my sister...

What a blessing that we live in the modern world, where there is adequate medicine and high tech allowing you to live in comfort. With enviable constancy, manufacturers release new gadgets, and doctors are tirelessly looking for cures for various diseases, but our distant ancestors not as lucky as we are. If you still miss the days of knights and ladies in puffy dresses, then after this article you will definitely not want to return to the past.

1.
Chastity belt

Oddly enough, stories about knights and kings locking chastity belts on the bodies of their women are a myth. In the Middle Ages, medicine was in its infancy, but, apparently, there was enough knowledge to understand: a metal trap on a woman would kill her pretty soon. The friction of metal against the skin and genitals would certainly lead to injuries, and the constant contamination of injured areas would lead to sepsis and death. The first noteworthy mention of a chastity belt dates back to 1405, but it is not known what these belts were specifically used for. There is a version that the "chastity belt" actually saved women from rape. Found belts allegedly from the Middle Ages were later recognized as fakes Victorian era. And from this moment all the most interesting begins.
The reign of Queen Victoria can be considered the heyday of Puritan morality. Her Majesty was a talented politician, but years of widowhood turned her into a supporter of strictness and alleged holiness. "Victorian morality" prescribed abstinence even for legal spouses, not to mention free women. It was during this period that women began to close in "chastity belts". And not in order to remain faithful to the spouse. Creepy devices were even worn on young virgins - in order to prevent attempts at masturbation, which was announced terrible sin. In fairness, it is worth noting that the same fate awaited the young men. But the fact is that from a certain age, the young man became a man and controlled his life (and body) himself. A woman, on the other hand, from under the authority of her father, uncle or brother passed under the authority of her husband. And he had the right to close the torture device on her every night. To not sin.

2.
Lady saddle

Modern young ladies, who are fond of horse riding, master riding in a side saddle with great pleasure. Firstly, it is really very beautiful, and secondly, it demonstrates the highest skill of the rider. But modern world- this is a world in which horse riding is a hobby, and women have the right to freedom of movement and use not horses for this, but vehicles. And before the saddle was nothing more than a tool for restricting the freedom of a woman. Initially, both men and women rode in what is called the “male” seat, but then this seat was considered indecent for women. Ladies' saddles were invented with an overestimated pommel (for which a woman threw her right leg) and one left stirrup. The lady could sit in the saddle only with male help, while falling from the saddle guaranteed her either death or severe injuries: as a rule, the unfortunate leg remained in the stirrup, and the horse dragged the woman along. Naturally, women preferred to ride at a walk: for a gallop or even a trot, one had to have circus dexterity.
What does it mean? That a woman could go anywhere only and exclusively accompanied by a man. Driving a horse "like a man" and "like a lady" has serious differences, so a woman who has been accustomed to lady riding, in a critical situation, could not jump into the saddle like a man, and thereby ensure freedom of movement. The saddle was a tool that made it possible to keep a woman in submission and dependence on a man. Not to mention how many women it killed or mercilessly maimed.

3.
Bandages

The Chinese believed that a girl should have a tiny foot, mincing gait and a fragile figure, swaying like a twig in the wind. That's why they broke girls' legs. The "lotus foot" is a custom that has made many women disabled. At the age of four or five years, the girl's foot was bandaged, pressing her fingers to it. No more bandages were removed. The foot, of course, did not stop growing, but deformed, causing hellish pain to the girl. By about the age of 10, the girl received a “graceful” 10-centimeter foot and could now begin to learn to walk again. Alas, some remained chained to a chair until the end of their days, while the rest could not move without outside help. At the same time, the "lotus leg" was considered a necessary condition in order to successfully marry. After all, only commoners who had to work hard were not maimed.

4.
Corset

Only in the 19th century, doctors finally started talking about the dangers of corsets, and before that, women were dragged into these torture devices made of cloth and whalebone. Here is an incomplete list of complications that awaited a woman who wore a corset every day: compression of the heart muscle, deformation of the bones of the chest, paralysis of the lungs, suffocation, fainting and spontaneous abortions. And all this is at best. At worst, death from one of these causes.

5.
Razor

The terrible tradition of female circumcision still exists. In many Middle Eastern and African countries still, in the 21st century, they continue to mutilate little girls in the name of chastity. There are three types of female circumcision: in the first case, the skin folds around the clitop are removed so that it is permanently open. Secondly, both the clitoris itself and the labia minora are cut off. This forever deprives a woman of the opportunity to receive sexual satisfaction. It is believed that this terrible, crippling operation will make the future woman chaste. Third and most scary option- pharaonic circumcision. For a little girl, both the clitoris and the labia minora are removed, and the large ones are sewn together so that only a tiny hole is left for the release of menstrual blood. The fact is that such an operation guarantees the bride's virginity: a man's penis simply cannot penetrate through this hole, and in the first place wedding night the husband cuts the scar with a razor.
An adult woman who has undergone circumcision is not just permanently deprived of the opportunity to receive sexual satisfaction. These mutilating operations make themselves felt at the moment when a woman bears and gives birth to a child. Mutilated genitals simply cannot withstand the load: old scars are torn. Women who survive "Pharaoh's circumcision" are likely to die or remain permanently mutilated and sick after the mutilated vulva ruptures and fistulas form between the vagina and rectum.
And you should know that all this still exists. Here and now

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If you think that today's people are doing something out of the ordinary, then you should look at relatively recent history. You will see that our ancestors did much more strange things, and within the limits of what was permitted.

website compiled a list of 10 creepy things that were once considered perfectly acceptable for you.

cocaine treatment

Sending children by mail

It sounds like a joke, but at the beginning of the 20th century in the USA it was absolutely legal to send your baby by mail to relatives. Shipping cost parents about 15 cents, provided that their child weighed no more than a standard package was supposed to. Perhaps, in this way, “caring” parents wanted to save money by sending their child to visit their grandmother.

Window cages for babies

In the 1930s in Britain, it was not uncommon to see wire cages on the windows of residential buildings. With the help of these creepy devices, children breathed fresh air while their mothers were doing household chores. Incredibly, window cages were considered quite safe. What were the parents thinking at that time?

garden hermits

At all times, the rich have been obsessed with all sorts of whims and, as a result, forced others to suffer for the sake of their fulfillment. In the XVIII century, there was a fashion to settle in your garden "personal hermit" dressed in rags. The hermit was forbidden to wash, cut his hair and nails, and a man-made grotto served as his home. The hosts were happy to show this "living decoration" to the guests.

Questionable treatments

In the not too distant past, doctors had no idea about disinfection and used strange methods: bloodletting for all diseases, cutting the tongue for stuttering, lobotomy and electric shock. Even the most successful doctors of their time, such as orthopedic surgeon Lewis Sayre (pictured with a patient), were not at all uncommon in fatal operations.

Radioactive toys

In the 50s of the XX century, radiation was treated differently than today - it was simply not considered so dangerous. "Atomic" toys, such as the mini-lab in the photo, were at the peak of popularity. The experiment kit included real polonium and uranium, but, of course, in microscopic doses.

human zoos

There was once a popular type of "entertainment" in the West, the purpose of which was to demonstrate immigrants from Asia and Africa in the form of savages, often next to monkeys - as a living "proof" of Darwin's theory. This shameful practice lasted quite a long time - in the photo you see a human zoo in Belgium in 1958.

Everyone, probably, will agree that over the years our way of life has changed dramatically. Technological breakthroughs and our knowledge of the human mind and body have led to the fact that we have stepped far ahead in our development.

Our ancient ancestors could hardly have imagined that humanity would be able to reach such unprecedented heights. We have traveled to the moon, launched satellites into space, sent rovers to distant planets, and created the International Space Station. Medical community achieved what was previously considered impossible (for example, the successful treatment of many diseases, complex life-saving organ transplants, the development of drugs that treat diseases), which has significantly improved the quality of life.

However, the truth is that today it is also difficult for us to believe in the reality of things that our ancestors once considered normal. In this article, we will look at what was commonplace in the past, but today seems unimaginable.

1. Legal drug use

As stated, during civil war In the United States, 400,000 soldiers were addicted to opiates. As strange as it may seem today, it was previously believed that addiction would not occur if you inject drugs directly into a vein, since this way they could not get into your stomach. Since early times, most "mood-altering" drugs have been available without a prescription. Then women were considered "the weaker sex", so they were prescribed these drugs in huge quantities to treat a wide variety of "ailments". Is it any wonder that women were three times more dependent on these drugs than men.

Narcotic substances were prescribed to women for the treatment of such “disturbances” in the work of the body as sexual exhaustion, ticklishness, cracked nipples, boredom, longing, hysteria and morning sickness during pregnancy. Moreover, cocaine was injected into the women through a vein to make them more "alive and sociable." They also took part in "oxygen parties" during which they inhaled nitrous oxide.

2. Barber-surgeon


Need a shave and a haircut? This refers to the amputation of that annoying toe that prevents you from living. No problem, the local barber-surgeon will take care of him. You can be sure that you are in the right place if you see a bowl of fresh blood on the windowsill, and a white cape stained with red spots on the floor.

Yes, the first medical procedures were terrible. Bloodletting was the most popular service offered by the barbers-surgeons. They opened the veins to drain the "bad" blood, or used leeches for this purpose. Unfortunately, the "surgeons" didn't always know when to stop, so patients sometimes lost too much blood. Trepanation was also very popular. This procedure consisted in making a hole in the head in order to get rid of such ailments as headaches, abscesses, dementia, mental illness and so on. Also, trepanation was intended to rid the body of evil spirits. Worst of all, during these procedures, patients were conscious, because at that time they had not yet come up with anesthetics.

Last but not least, amputations performed in barbershops. Is there anything else worth saying? At an early stage, the causes of the emergence and spread of diseases were unknown, so demons, stars, witches, and even bad smells were often blamed for this.

3. The death penalty as entertainment


Public executions in the Middle Ages were carried out in front of a large number of people in order to demonstrate the severity of punishment for those who dare to break the law. It was rumored that the days of executions were often declared official holidays in order to attract more viewers and, as a rule, the atmosphere was charged with excitement.

Hanging was the most popular method of execution; in the center of most towns and villages the gallows were always ready. After the criminal was executed, the body was usually carried away immediately, but in some cases it was left hanging in a noose until it turned to dust.

Beheading was another popular form of capital punishment, especially for members of the aristocracy. If everything was fine, then the executioner would deprive the victim of his head on the first try. If his ax or sword was blunt, and he himself acted carelessly, then he needed several blows to achieve the desired goal. According to rumors, once the executioner had to inflict ten blows before he could send the countess to the next world. As you know, severed heads were sometimes impaled on stakes and put on public display so that other people would remember that law and order are above all.

4. Grave looting in the name of science


Organizing a lavish funeral ceremony to honor the lives of deceased loved ones is a long tradition. We mourn, share memories, and then release their souls to rest in peace. Unfortunately, during the Renaissance, many of the dead did not find peace after death.

As science and medicine developed, it was found that knowledge of human anatomy could be very useful. Because of the thirst to understand how it works and functions human body, soon there was a shortage of corpses for dissection. Initially, the main source of dead bodies were executed criminals. When demand exceeded supply, body snatchers began to appear.

Under the cover of night they dug a large number of recently buried bodies. Subsequently, these bodies were sold to anatomists, who performed autopsies while they were relatively fresh. When the body snatchers could no longer keep up with demand, medical students sometimes retrieved dead bodies on their own. Some have even been caught and convicted for it. In the most desperate times, corpses were stolen right during the funeral processions. By the way, Leonardo da Vinci once performed an autopsy of a huge number of corpses, thanks to which he made a number of important discoveries and was able to create fairly detailed drawings that greatly contributed to the education of medical students.

5. Challenge to a duel


If the person at whom they threw a glove with the words “I challenge you to a duel” raised it, then he accepted the challenge. After that, it remained only to appoint a time / place and choose a weapon. Initially, preference was given to swords, and after swords and revolvers.

The duel has been a popular way for sophisticated gentlemen to defend their honor and reputation for several centuries. The insults that led to duels were often trite and bizarre (for example, a person could be challenged to a duel just because they didn't like someone's clothes). Strict rules were in place to prevent the death of participants, but they did not always work.

6. Slow and dangerous journeys


In the Middle Ages, getting from point A to point B was an incredibly difficult task. It is difficult to imagine what our ancestors had to face during the journey. Modern society has a lot of options available, but in those days the choice was extremely limited. One way to get anywhere was to travel on foot. In a day, a person could overcome on his feet a distance equal to 24-40 kilometers. Another option was to travel on horseback. In this case, it was possible to travel a distance equal to 32-48 kilometers in a day. If a person sailed on a boat or ship, then he could cover a distance equal to 120-200 kilometers in a day.

The length of the path was not the only problem. If there was no hotel nearby or a safe place to hide for the night, then travelers had to sleep under open sky. Among other problems that had to be faced by those who went long haul, there were accidents or illnesses, exhaustion or spoilage of food and drinks, robbers and so on. Sailing on a ship was also no less dangerous. Many of the wooden ships could not withstand severe storms.

7. Cruel Punishment for Adultery


The Scarlet Letter, a novel by American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, tells the story of a Puritan woman whose husband goes missing. She eventually became pregnant and was thrown into prison, where she soon gave birth to a child. After her release, she was forced to wear scarlet letter"A" (English adulteress - adulteress) on clothes for the rest of her life. She also had to avoid people.

I would like to think that in reality this was not the case. However, unfortunately, there is no escape from the truth. One Puritan woman who cheated on her husband was sentenced to a public beating. After prolonged bullying and mockery, she was taken to the city where adultery took place. There, she was beaten again by an angry mob. Moreover, she was forced to wear the letters "AD" (English adulteress - adulteress) on her clothes so that everyone would know that she had cheated on her husband. Just like in The Scarlet Letter. It is also known that unfaithful women were driven around the city in a cart and whipped at the same time. There have been cases of adulterers executed for their "crime". Note that only women were subjected to all these punishments. When a man committed adultery, he was charged with the lesser crime of fornication. And all because women were considered seductresses.

8. In the name of beauty


What is considered beautiful and fashionable is constantly changing. In the mid-1400s, high society ladies were considered beautiful if they had a high forehead and pale skin. To match the fashion, they plucked their hair along the growth line so that their foreheads appeared larger. If plucking did not give the desired results, they resorted to using a rough stone or treating the hair with chemicals. There was also a tendency to completely pluck out the eyelashes and pluck out the eyebrows.

Tanned skin was considered a sign of the poor, so the rich did everything possible to achieve a pale complexion. One such remedy was cosmetics made from mercury, pearls, silver, or eggshells. Some people have used white flour, chalk or lead powder mixed with olive oil. To make such cosmetics last longer on the face, a thin layer of egg white was applied on top of it.

9. To swim or not - that is the question


During the Middle Ages, for some strange reason, doctors began to believe that bathing in water would make you more susceptible to disease. Some also thought that opening the pores while bathing would allow "vital forces" to leave the human body. Of course, people still wanted to be clean and presentable. Especially in high society. Some used basins to wash their hands and face throughout the day. Others showered themselves generously with perfume, while still others wiped their faces and bodies with scented towels and frequently changed their underwear.

10 Deadly Birth


The most important duty married woman in the Renaissance, it was to give birth and raise a child. Even though many women in childbirth died in childbirth and the infant mortality rate was also high, women continued to get pregnant again and again throughout their lives. They gave birth to 8-12 children, and some even 20 or more.

The midwives who assisted in childbirth were trained only by women of previous generations. They could handle anything from normal childbirth to cord entanglement. They could also perform an emergency baptism if there was a possibility that the child would not survive. In addition, midwives removed dead fetuses and performed caesarean sections to save the baby if his mother died during childbirth.

Ecology

The cosmos is full of bizarre and even terrible phenomena ranging from stars that suck the life out of their own kind to gigantic black holes that are billions of times larger and more massive than our Sun. Below are the scariest things in outer space.

planet is a ghost

Many astronomers have said that the huge planet Fomalhaut B has sunk into oblivion, but it seems to be alive again.

Back in 2008, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope announced the discovery of a huge planet orbiting the very bright star Fomalhaut, just 25 light years away from Earth. Other researchers later questioned this discovery, saying that scientists had actually detected a giant dust cloud being imaged.

However, according to the latest data from Hubble, the planet is showing up again and again. Other experts are carefully studying the system surrounding the star, so the zombie planet may be buried more than once before a final verdict is made on this issue.

Zombies are stars

Some stars are literally coming back to life in a brutal and dramatic way. Astronomers classify these zombie stars as Type Ia supernovae, which generate huge and powerful explosions, sending the "innards" of stars into the Universe.

Type Ia supernovae explode from binary systems that consist of at least one white dwarf - a tiny, superdense star that has stopped undergoing nuclear fusion. White dwarfs are "dead", but in this form they cannot remain in a binary system.

They can come back to life, albeit briefly, in a giant explosion along with a supernova, sucking life out of their companion star or by merging with it.

Stars are vampires

Just like vampires in fiction, some stars manage to stay young by sucking the life force out of unfortunate victims. These vampire stars are known as "blue stragglers" and "look" much younger than their neighbors with whom they were formed.

When they explode, the temperature is much higher, and the color is "much bluer." Scientists believe this is the case because they suck great amount hydrogen from neighboring stars.

Giant black holes

Black holes may appear to be objects science fiction- they are extremely dense, and the gravity in them is so strong that even light is not able to escape from them if it approaches them at a close enough distance.

But these are very real objects that are quite common throughout the universe. In fact, astronomers believe that supermassive black holes are at the center of most if not all galaxies, including our own Milky Way. Supermassive black holes are mind-boggling in size. Scientists recently discovered two black holes, each with the mass of 10 billion of our Suns.

Unfathomable cosmic blackness

If you are afraid of the dark, then being in deep space is clearly not for you. It is a place of "extreme blackness", far from the comforting home lights. Outer space is black, according to scientists, because it is empty.

Despite the trillions of stars scattered throughout the cosmos, many molecules are at a huge distance from each other in order to interact and scatter.

Spiders and witch's brooms

The skies are filled with witches, glowing skulls and all-seeing eyes, in fact you can imagine any object. We see all of these forms in the diffuse collection of glowing gas and dust called nebulae that are scattered throughout the universe.

The visual images that appear before us are examples of a special phenomenon in which the human brain recognizes the forms of random images.

Killer asteroids

The phenomena cited in the previous paragraph may be eerie or take an abstract form, but they do not pose a threat to humanity. What cannot be said about large asteroids that fly at a distance close to the Earth.

Experts say that a 1 kilometer wide asteroid has the power to destroy our planet in a collision. And even an asteroid only 40 meters in size can cause serious harm if it hits a populated area.

The influence of an asteroid is one of the factors that affects life on Earth. It is likely that 65 million years ago it was an asteroid 10 kilometers in size that destroyed the dinosaurs. Lucky for us, scientists are scanning the sky, and there are ways to redirect dangerous space rocks away from Earth if the danger is detected in time.

active sun

The sun gives us life, but our star is not always so good. Serious storms play out on it from time to time, which can have a potentially devastating effect on radio communications, satellite navigation and the operation of electrical networks.

IN Lately such solar flares are especially common as the sun entered its particularly active phase of the 11-year cycle. Researchers expect solar activity to peak in 2013.