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The past was far more revolting than many of us can comprehend. We’ve previously discussed the refuse-laden streets of Pompeii, the unbearable odors of medieval London, and the unsanitary conditions of the 18th century. Yet, even these pale in comparison to the terrifying parasites and illnesses that plagued earlier eras.
10. Teeth That Could Explode
Recall the last time you experienced a severe toothache? It was unbearable, right? Now, multiply that pain by a hundred. The agony becomes so intense that it drives you to madness, making you behave like a wild animal. And to make matters worse, your dentist is powerless to help.
This was the kind of excruciating toothache a few unfortunate patients endured during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Fortunately, the infected teeth had a peculiar way of resolving the issue—they would explode.
In 1817, Reverend DA from Springfield experienced such a horrific toothache that he behaved like a “ferocious beast,” thrashing his head against the ground and gnawing on a fence post to ease his suffering. Yet, the pain only intensified.
One morning, the reverend’s wife heard a loud crack, resembling a gunshot. Moments later, her husband walked in, announcing he was healed. His tooth had exploded, scattering fragments of calcium across the room.
Several similar cases have been documented. While patients often felt relief after the tooth burst, the explosion itself could be dangerous. In 1871, one woman was nearly thrown off her feet by the force of the blast, which was so loud it temporarily deafened her.
Instances of teeth exploding mysteriously ceased in the 1920s. Experts now believe that the combination of metals used in early dental fillings may have caused cavities to accumulate hydrogen, eventually resulting in small explosions.
9. Massive and Excruciating Intestinal Worms
Intestinal worms, such as tapeworms, still infect people today. However, these parasites are nothing compared to the monstrous worms documented in the 18th century. In 1782, an article in Medical Essays and Observations described a young man who expelled a worm measuring 0.5 meters (1.5 ft) in length and 4.0 centimeters (1.5 in) in width. By 'expelled,' we mean he needed a friend’s assistance to pull it out of his body.
Composed of segments resembling earthworms and filled with dark, viscous blood, the worm seemed like a creature from a horror film. It had a duckbill-like jaw, a dark chocolate hue, and had apparently been tunneling through the man’s intestines for days. Its movements caused him unbearable pain. This monstrosity was clearly not a tapeworm.
A comparable account from the 16th century is equally horrifying. Italian goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini wrote in his autobiography about once vomiting a worm that measured 13 centimeters (5 inches) in length and was covered in long, dark hairs. No one could identify what it was.
8. Dancing Plagues
Mass hysteria occurs when a large group of people engage in bizarre behavior on a massive scale without any logical explanation. Notable instances include the Loudun possessions and the Salem witch trials.
Throughout history, mass hysteria has occasionally merged with medical phenomena, resulting in eerie and inexplicable 'plagues.' Among the most unsettling was the dancing plague of 1518.
The plague erupted during a sweltering July in Strasbourg when a woman began dancing in the streets and couldn’t stop. Days later, she was still dancing, seemingly unable to control her movements. Soon, things took a bizarre turn as over 100 others joined her, only to find themselves equally unable to cease dancing.
Historical accounts describe the victims as terrified, pleading with onlookers to help them stop. Within days, some were literally dancing themselves to death.
Fortunately, the town devised an unusual yet effective remedy. They concluded that the afflicted needed to dance out their compulsion. Dance halls and stages were constructed, and musicians were hired to play nonstop. By September, the 400 exhausted dancers finally stopped, bringing an end to the plague.
While this was the last recorded dancing plague in Europe, it wasn’t the first. At least 10 similar outbreaks had occurred earlier, including one in 1374 that swept through what is now Belgium, Luxembourg, and much of northern France.
7. Bladder Beetles
There are some experiences no man ever wishes to endure. Hearing a doctor diagnose 'prostate cancer' is one. Another is the horrifying realization that a living creature has emerged from the tip of his penis. In 1838, one unfortunate man faced this exact nightmare.
As documented in American Journal of the Medical Sciences, the 23-year-old patient was battling a urinary tract infection. After days of passing blood and pus, he became completely unable to urinate.
His pain was so severe that doctors rushed to procure a catheter. Before it arrived, the issue resolved itself in the most horrifying manner. A pea-sized object emerged from his penis, followed by a flood of pus and urine. Upon examination, doctors identified the obstruction as a live beetle.
Alarmingly, such incidents were not uncommon during that era. Former BBC journalist Thomas Morris has documented numerous cases on his chilling blog. One particularly disturbing account involves a young boy who expelled 16 slugs through his urine.
6. Sleepy Sickness
If you were suddenly transported back to 1918, there’s one disease you’d likely avoid at all costs. That year, the Spanish flu swept across the globe, claiming up to 50 million lives—more than double the casualties of World War I. However, this pandemic overshadowed another equally mysterious and arguably more bizarre outbreak.
Though far less deadly than the Spanish flu—resulting in 'only' one million deaths—sleepy sickness was no less terrifying. Officially termed encephalitis lethargica, modern scientists believe it was a reaction to a rare strain of Streptococcus bacteria.
At the time, however, the cause was a complete mystery. All that was known was that people were suddenly falling asleep as if struck by narcolepsy. Tragically, some never woke up.
However, they didn’t perish. Some victims fell into coma-like states, losing control of their bodies and remaining unresponsive. Placed in medical facilities, they exhibited brain activity but showed no reaction to external stimuli.
Millions around the globe endured this horrific ordeal. While some were temporarily revived using drug treatments in 1969, many relapsed into their dormant state within weeks.
Frighteningly, the disease hasn’t completely disappeared. Isolated cases still emerge today, though the likelihood of another widespread outbreak remains minimal.
5. Eye Spiders
The mere mention of 'eye spiders' is enough to haunt the dreams of many. For arachnophobes, the reality behind this term is even more horrifying.
In 1840, Dr. Lopez of Alabama was summoned to a gruesome case in Charleston. His patient had felt something fall on her face while sleeping the previous night. By morning, her eye was grotesquely swollen. Upon examination, a mucus-covered spider was found residing in the eye cavity.
Shockingly, the nightmare was far from over. Days later, Dr. Lopez was called back to the woman’s home, where more spiders were discovered in her eye socket.
For weeks, Dr. Lopez visited her daily, each time removing a tiny, mucus-coated spider from her eye. After two months, locals speculated that the original spider had laid an egg sac behind her eyeball, causing the horrifying ordeal.
For those feeling queasy, there’s some relief. Dr. Lopez eventually concluded that such an event was biologically implausible. The woman, it turned out, was mentally ill and had been placing the spiders in her eye herself, likely as a cry for attention.
The 19th century was a prolific era for bizarre cases of animals being removed from human bodies. On his blog, Thomas Morris recounts tales of a boy who expelled millipedes through vomiting and another individual who allegedly had a live mouse extracted from his intestines.
4. Ice Age Superbugs
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria represent a looming threat. These resilient microbes, first identified in 1947, are becoming increasingly common. Known as superbugs, these evolutionary marvels could pose a significant risk to humanity’s survival.
However, recent studies suggest that superbugs may not be a modern phenomenon. Evidence indicates they originated in what is now Canada, wreaking havoc on our ancestors during the last ice age.
In 2011, Scientific American revealed that antibiotic-resistant superbugs had been discovered deep within the ice near Dawson City, Yukon. These ancient pathogens, at least 30,000 years old, had been hidden from sunlight for millennia. Long before humans developed antibiotics, Actinobacteria had already evolved mechanisms to resist eradication.
Naturally, this made little difference to our ice age ancestors. Whether resistant to antibiotics or not, these microbes were deadly. However, if you ever find yourself traveling back in time via a DeLorean or TARDIS, you might want to steer clear of prehistoric Canada.
3. The Plague of Athens
Among the many horrifying and enigmatic plagues that have afflicted humanity, none is more terrifying or puzzling than the Plague of Athens. Between 430 BC and 426 BC, the birthplace of democracy was transformed from a hub of ancient wisdom into a grim spectacle of suffering and death.
According to the sole surviving eyewitness account, recorded by Thucydides, victims experienced reddened eyes, bloody tongues, decaying throats, and severe ulcers covering their bodies. To add to the horror, death often followed a grueling episode of diarrhea.
It’s believed that up to two-thirds of Athens’ population perished in this manner, including some of the city-state’s most prominent leaders and generals. Alarmingly, the cause remains unknown. Many researchers speculate that the Plague of Athens might have been the first recorded Ebola outbreak.
However, this theory faces challenges, as no other outbreaks were documented between 426 BC and the 1970s. Alternative hypotheses include cholera, bubonic plague, typhoid, and even measles.
2. Vomiting Up a Fetus
In 1835, Dr. Ardoin, a French physician residing in Greece, documented the case of a young boy named Demetrius Stamatelli, who vomited a fetus. This already horrifying account becomes even more disturbing when considering that the expelled fetus was likely his own twin.
Parasitic twins occur when one twin absorbs the other in the womb. Typically, the absorbed twin remains undetected until after death. In rare cases, surgical removal is necessary if complications arise. The 1830s case in Greece is the only recorded instance of someone apparently vomiting their twin.
The details of this case are horrifying. Demetrius suffered such severe abdominal pain that he was near death. His symptoms only subsided after a violent vomiting episode expelled the dead twin from his mouth. The twin was reportedly connected to him by an umbilical cord. Dr. Ardoin found this macabre event utterly intriguing.
1. Laughing Plagues
While the dancing plague occurred centuries ago, instances of mass hysteria are not confined to the distant past. In modern-day Tanzania, you’d only need to travel back to 1962, when the mainland was still known as Tanganyika. That year, a laughing epidemic struck. People suddenly began laughing uncontrollably, and months later, they still hadn’t stopped.
Much like the dancing plague, the laughing epidemic was unsettling because those affected seemed unable to stop. People laughed so intensely that they injured themselves. Schools were shut down, and entire villages were quarantined. By the time the plague subsided months later, 1,000 people had laughed themselves into illness.
One of the most unsettling aspects is how the symptoms were recounted. Victims described sensations of 'something shifting inside their heads' and claimed they were under the influence of an external, otherworldly force. However, experts universally attribute the phenomenon to mass hysteria.
