In 1492, Christopher Columbus along with his three ships, the Niña, the Piñata and the Saint Maria sailed the big ocean blue and "discovered" America. *.5 milisecond eagle noise* But... I mean... there were already people here... And he still called them Indians, because he thought, "Okay, this must be India" But... they didn't ridicule Chris because he thought the earth was flat, no. They ridiculed him because Chris thought the distance from Asia to Portugal was only 2,400 miles... ... when, in actuality, it's 10,000 miles... Not to mention there was A huge freaking continent between them It just makes you want to say, "Boy were they wrong!" And that's the theme of this video We've come a long way in modern medicine We have vaccine's and X-rays And MRI scanners and we learned to wash our hands before operations Because we didn't used to do that before Boy were they wrong! Yes I am going to say that everytime So obviously with new discoveries In medicine we'll realize some of the things We used to do Were wrong No don't put your baby on it's back It could throw up and choke itself No don't put it on it's stomach It can get SIDS NO put it on it's head And it also comes at no surprise that some Of the things that we used to think were helpful Were actually killing us One such thing as mercury You see we didn't realize that this stuff might be bad For us until 1926 Before that we used mercury in everything Ok that's and exaggeration We've been mining mercury since the roman times And use mercury in paint and hats and thermometers And back in the old days People who made hats with mercury had a higher Chance at getting dementia And that's where the term "Mad as a hatter" came from Because they were mad with Dementia And also just a PSA We put mercury in the swirly lightbulb So if you break one well it's time to die And in ancient history some healers promised that By consuming deadly brews Containing mercury Their patients will gain eternal life And the ability to walk on water *laughter* No One of the most famous cases was A chinese emperor called Qin-Shi Huang Who died after ingesting a mercury pill That was supposed to make him immortal Boy were they wrong! Also speaking of ingesting poisonous food Europeans thought that the tomato was poisonous *laughter* What? So apperently rich europeans ate their tomatos on pewter plates Which, guess what? Had lead in it And because tomatoes are acidic Whenever people ate tomatoes off the plates The fruit, because they're a fruit remember? would leech lead from the plate And become poison And then people would eat it and die And everyone blamed the tomato But the real killer was right under them the whole time And apparently there's a story about George Washington Where one of his cooks tried to assassinate him By putting a tomato in his soup But that didn't work because they're harmless And also snoop said the whole story was false Soo... Boy were they wrong! Here's something else In medieval times back before we knew anything about diseases and immune system If someone was sick doctors would just be like, "Ugh" "You just got bad blood man." So what the doctors would do to remedy this Would let you slit your wrists and let you bleed all your blood out This was called bloodletting And also cool was that it wasn't surgeons doing these procedures It was barbers Bbut surgeon barbers not the ones who cut hair They were called that because they carried big scissors around To cut peoples wrist And also according to Wikipedia That's the reason barber shops have red and white poles in front of them Because the red symbolizes blood and the white bandages Or i could be totally wrong I'm not doing anymore research into it But back to bloodletting Uh no it's incredibly stupid In fact our blood has white blood cells in it Which kill viruses sooo? Boy were they wrong! Ok what else we got? So do you remember in 10th grade chemistry when you had to remember all those elements On the periodic table? And remember how you failed that test and thought, "man, if only the periodic table was shorter and it had like 4 elements and those elements were earth, water, fire and air." Well if you live in B.C to early 16th century You wouldn't have had to take that online Chem class Because you'd've been right! And apperently Aristotle said that there was a 5th element Aither which according To the second Thor movie Is one of the 6 infinity stones And people believed this until This freaking nerd was like, "Uhm actually there's like a bajillion elements and now everyone has to memorize them" You know i wonder what those buzzfeed articles That were like "9 things you thought were true but aren't" Would've been like in medieval times
more annoying than funny
Aren't tomatoes the odd ones out its family that aren't poisonous?
Whenever I hear about how dumb bloodletting was I have to imagine that it probably seemed to work, at least at first. If you imagine there was limited availability to actual medicines back then. Funny enough almost all of our current cold remedies are over 100 years old, however, at the time bloodletting was popular it was unlikely you could just run to corner store and buy a bottle of Aspirin or cough syrup. A barber was likely a lot more available and was also likely to have some cold medication with him. If someone was for instance, running a severe fever or just extremely sick, bloodletting may have appeared to make them feel better as they would likely well feel nice and lightheaded or even pass out for a while. For someone who has a persistent hacking cough and hasn't gotten sleep in several nights, bloodletting them and them passing out for a few hours was likely seen as a reliable remedy. It's also safe to assume many people enjoyed bloodletting. It's not even that uncommon now for some people to enjoy bloodletting. There's entire subgroups who engage in this behavior, but back then it was probably just a convenient way to get a little lightheaded and pass out when there were no other medicines available.
Gets old.....REALLY fast.
I like that the image used for Air was a Fritos Lay crisp packet
nice
AMUSING