vote on everything

Ranker Collection

We Didn't Know Any Better

5.4m views12 Twisted Before & After Stories Of Lobotomy VictimsThroughout the history of medicine, there have been few surgical practices more barbaric and cruel yet sometimes surprisingly help...

499.1k viewsThese People Did Shockingly Disgusting Things In The Name Of Medical ScienceHave you ever wondered exactly how we know what we do about medicine? Ever thought about what medical experiments people did to th...

537.4k viewsThe Complicated History Of The "Father Of Gynecology" J. Marion Sims, Who Performed His Groundbreaking Research On Enslaved WomenModern doctors are governed by a system of medical ethics developed over the past century. But how should we assess the reputation...

345.8k viewsMedical Devices From The Early 1900s Were Absolutely TerrifyingOld medical devices obviously served important functions, but their primitive, industrial designs suggest that they were more harm...

106.7k viewsThis Controversial Study You've Never Heard Of Allowed Scientists To Separate Twins At BirthThe 2018 documentary Three Identical Strangers introduced audiences to Edward Galland, David Kellman, and Robert Shafran - a set o...

203k viewsFrom Miner's Anemia to Blackwater Fever: 24 Bizarre Old-Fashioned Medical TermsMedicine is a constantly advancing profession. Doctors are always refining their techniques and their terminology, which is why so...

650 voters12 Toxic Substances That Have Been Used As MedicineThe history of medicine is long and full of bizarre concoctions. Humans have stopped at nothing to find solutions to their ailment...

266.6k viewsPremature Babies Used To Be Put On Display At Hospitals Like SideshowsDr. Martin Couney's Coney Island baby display was a sideshow attraction that ran from 1903 to 1943. Over the course of those 40 ye...

Graveyard Shift

144.1k views10 Horrifying Medical Procedures Doctors Actually Practiced In The 19th CenturyThe 19th century is known for many things, including the reign of Britain's Queen Victoria and the US Civil War. Coming on the hee...

1.2k votersThe 13 Craziest Things Ever Used As Medicine (In America)A doctor's mind is supposed to be filled with endless amounts of knowledge. We trust them with our health, even with our lives, to...

American Horror Story: Asylum

404.2k viewsAHS: Asylum Was Based Off The True Story Of A Woman Who Went Undercover At A Demented Insane AsylumAmerican Horror Story fans are familiar with the undercover female journalist Nellie Bly, even if they don't know her name. That's...

11.9k voters19 Bizarre Medical Practices From History That Sound Made Up – But Aren'tModern medicine has seen more development in the past 50 years than in all of human history combined. Many long-practiced medical ...

137.4k viewsWhat It Was Like To Be A Patient In A US 'Mental Hospital' In The Year 1900Straitjackets. Sedatives. Bars on the windows. In 1900, patients at mental hospitals in the United States faced inhumane treatment...

240.5k viewsHealth Issues Throughout History That Made People Think You Were RichSometimes it feels like the rich get the best of everything: better cars, clothes, food - but do they get better diseases? While m...

112.1k viewsVirginia Ran A Secret Eugenics Program That Didn't End Until 1979Eugenics was popular in the United States long before Nazis like Dr. Josef Mengele used it to promote racial purity. Here's some p...

1.3k voters14 Bizarre 18th-Century Methods For Making Sure A Corpse Was Really DeadThe line between life and death suddenly seemed unclear in the 18th and 19th centuries. New scientific knowledge, like the use of ...

862 voters12 Of The Strangest Dentures People Have Ever Willingly Put In Their MouthsDentistry is strange. Dentures are even stranger. Today, when people require a set of false teeth or an individual dental implant,...

1.9k votersCrazy Experimental Medical Procedures That Actually WorkedWhile human treatment of medical problems has a long and sometimes bizarre history, recent history has seen medicine advance expon...

90.7k views11 Morbid Historical Facts About Electroconvulsive TherapyElectroconvulsive therapy (ECT, once known as "electroshock therapy") is a procedure where electricity is passed through the brain...

123.3k viewsWeird Historical Notions and Beliefs About PregnancyAsk any parent: pregnancy is a pretty scary ordeal. There's so much that can go wrong, even with 21st-century science and medicine...