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25 Details From History That Are Just So Gross

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Look, we know it's tempting to be sentimental, but the truth is that no matter how hard you wish you lived in a previous time period, you would have been utterly miserable (or utterly dead). We don't like to make wild claims without backing them up with facts, so here are some facts that will demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt how objectively horrifying our ancestors' lives actually were.

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Entry by Kittylouise

CHINESE WOMEN'S FEET WERE INTENTIONALLY MANGLED. For a thousand years, many Chinese women had their feet tightly (and excruciatingly) bound from an ea

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Entry by sirwillifer

CRACKED CO MUMMY-BASED PAINT WAS POPULAR AMONC EUROPEAN ARTISTS. Mummy brown was a rich brown pigment made with pitch, myrrh, and, uh, ground-up Egy

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Entry by luvthecubs

CRACKED.COM SWALLOWING LIVE GOLDFISH WAS POPULAR ONCE. Does sushi gross you out? How about eating a fish while it's still alive? A short-lived fad amo

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PEOPLE POISONED THEMSELVES TO LOOK BEAUTIFUL. In the 18th century, -based makeup was used to achieve a fashionable deathly pallor -which often became

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Entry by Adogg1991

19TH-CENTURY LONDON STANK TO HEAVEN The city's sewage was dumped directly into the Thames in those days. In the summer of 1858, the stench became SO b

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Entry by tibbymstie

ANYONE USED TO BE ABLE TO SELL THEIR OWN MEDICINE. TERKEEWEEN OIL NERVE and BONE In the 19th century, many LINIMENT Relleves best Ome of the entrepr

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17TH-CENTURY POLES WORE A COMPLETELY DISGUSTING HAIRSTYLE. A Polish plait is a gross, smelly mass of crusty, matted hair cemented together by pus, n

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Entry by GrannyGrump

A MAD DOCTOR COULD TURN YOU INTO A (HICHLY VIRILE) GOAT-MAN. In the 1920s, Dr. John Brinkley became a sensation thanks to his cure for male impotence:

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Entry by Kanklefest

CRACKEDcO THE PAST WAS LOUSY WITH, UH, LICE. Being louse-fr is a modern luxury. Historical remedies included mercury, dog fat, and other stuff as gros

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Entry by Cimejes

MEDIEVAL WINTERS DIDN'T NEED ICE ZOMBIES TO BE AWFUL. Winter in Game of Thrones was worse than in real life, but not by much. For the common folk, win

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Entry by Kittylouise

LOBOTOMIES WERE ONCE USED AS A CURE-ALL. Do you have frequent headaches? Are your children unruly? Ask your doctor if a lobotomy is right for you! In

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Entry by Gino Reyes

FLUSHING THE TOILET WAS A DISGUSTING BUSINESS. Before indoor plumbing, people would just empty their chamber pots through a window. You would be wal

13
Entry by PunchBeam

BOYS WERE CASTRATED FOR PURELY ARTISTIC PURPOSES. Castrati were the rock stars of the 18th century-and they just needed to have their family jewels ch

12
Entry by Fiftyfifty

DOCTORS USED TO BLOW SMOKE UP YOUR ASS. It was already bad enough to fall into the Thames -but if you lived in the 18th century, you got a tobacco smo

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Entry by quxeot

ONCE UPON A TIME, PLUCKING YOUR EYEBROWS WASN'T ENOUGH. During the 15th century, high- class ladies in northern Europe painfully plucked their hairlin

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Entry by Phighter

THE ORLGOI 23 et KVA Hall Inreealemee Mike Chimny Fure CETE Cstt Hoch Laraamit TTewT Rok In Hlutf eoff etdlaer kweplh Hantine Lale Catert MISSOUIR C T

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Entry by Shodwei

ALCOHOL WAS POISONED DURING PROHIBITION. Back in the 1920s, industrial alcohol was poisoned to prevent bootleggers from using it But bootleggers just

8
Entry by CopperPoppy

CRACKED.COM SOME PEOPLES GAVE THEMSELVES ALIEN SKULLS. Several cultures around the world deformed their own skulls, a process that usually began short

7
Entry by parabox1

PHOTOGRAPHING DEAD PEOPLE WAS COMMON. You can tell one of these people isn't alive, can't you? Postmortem photography was born soon after the camera w

6
Entry by RisaRocksIt

WIPING YOUR ASS USED TO BE A PAIN IN THE... YOU KNOW. You are lucky to have even single-ply paper. Historically, people have used such things as hay,

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Entry by Scarin

MENTAL ILLNESS WAS TREATED WITH WATER TORTURE. Psychiatric patients in the 19th century were given a treatment called hydrotherapy. They were restra

4

CRACKEDcO PICTURED: 19TH- CENTURY DENTAL INSTRUMENTS. Not pictured: the nightmares caused by 19th-century dental instruments. The fact that you can't

3
Entry by Ms.Zuneja

ROMANS WASHED THEIR MOUTHS WITH URINE. Romans didn't have Listerine, SO they used human urine instead. The ammonia in pee does indeed have a cleaning

2
Entry by Nirgal

CRACKED co COM TIGHTLACING DEFORMED WOMEN'S BODIES. Victorian and Edwardian ladies had their corsets laced awfully tight to achieve a thin waist. The

1
Entry by Stabby.

DO YOU FIND CONDOMS UNCOMFORTABLE? TRY USING THIS. This 17th-century thing found in Sweden is the world's oldest known condom. It was made with pig in

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For more, check out 26 Comparisons That Will Destroy How You See History and 29 Insane Pastimes That Prove History Was Terrifying.

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