These 16 Vintage Medical Photos Are Both Creepy and Fascinating

#5. Multi-Person Ventilator: 1950s

Photo Credit: AARC

Polio was a real bitch before the vaccine that cured it came along.

At its peak in 1952, the year Jonas Salk first tested the vaccine on himself and his family, nearly 58,000 cases of the disease were reported.

These ventilators provided support and allowed patients to literally breathe easier.

#4. Heroin: 1890s

Photo Credit: Business Insider

Bayer not only has the f’awesomely horrendous legacy of using Jewish slave labor during the Holocaust, but they first jumped onto the map when they commercialized both aspirin and heroin in the 1890s.

Of course, reports that heroin was a bad idea for curing coughs and pain were coming out as early as 1899, so Bayer had to either prove that heroin was safe, stop making it altogether, or find a new market that didn’t know about the dangers:

#3. Heroin For Kids!: 1912

Photo Credit: Business Insider

They chose the last option.

You probably guessed that.

That big part roughly translates to:

For strong coughs, Bayer Heroin Cough Syrup.

That kid really loves his friggin’ heroin…

#2. Cocaine Toothache Drops: 1885

Photo Credit: Bytes

The ad reads:

COCAINE TOOTHACHE DROPS

Instantaneous Cure!

Price 15 Cents.

For sale by all Druggists.

(Registered March 1885.)

Cocaine is the new anaesthetic now used so extensively throughout Europe and this

country by Physicians, Surgeons and Dentists.

This preparation of Toothache Drops contains Cocaine, and its wonderful properties are fully demonstrated by the many recommendations it is daily receiving.

Take no other except Cocaine Toothache Drops.

For sale by all Druggists.

Prepared by the Lloyd Manufacturing Co., 219 Hudson Ave., Albany, N.Y.