5 Old-Timey Medical Treatments That Actually Work

World War I-era apparatus for electric treatment of psychological maladies Otis Historical Archives National Museum of Health and Medicine Thanks to vast improvements in hygiene, pharmaceuticals, and surgical techniques and devices, medical treatments today tend to be significantly less painful--and less deadly--than they were a century ago. Though the cures of yesteryear often seem brutally primitive, some, like the five treatments in this gallery, stand on solid science.