Ethical European norms have not always existed. What seems monstrous today, such as cannibalism, was the norm in Europe 300 years ago.
The English monarchs were treated for all ailments with drugs made from the flesh, bones and blood of the dead. And this is in civilized Europe, let alone China and other countries of East Asia.
CANNIBALISM IN EUROPEAN
Several centuries ago, "curative cannibalism" was widespread in England. Prescription guides of the time offered preparations based on various parts of the bodies of the deceased. And this did not bother anyone. In the 16th century, as a child, Queen Elizabeth contracted smallpox and left ugly marks on her face.
To somehow mask them, she used a drug made from human fat and beeswax. Moreover, the fat should have been obtained only from fresh corpses. Elizabeth's court physician treated wounds and ulcers with powder obtained from Egyptian mummies, and her teeth with an infusion of crushed teeth of the dead in dog milk.
Elizabeth's descendants did not lag behind her. They began to use human fat as an ointment for gout, and a powder made from scrapings from the skulls of unburied dead as a remedy for rheumatism. In general, the royal nobility used skull powder for a long time against many diseases, including epilepsy and addiction to alcohol.
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In especially severe cases, not only powder was used, but also the insides of the skull. Charles II even took pleasure in removing the contents of the skulls with his own hands in his laboratory in order to prepare the drug according to the recipe he bought for 6 thousand pounds.
Later, such a practice ceased to be the privilege of kings. During public executions, crowds of people gathered around the blockhouse to receive fresh blood, which was considered a panacea for epilepsy.
At one time, H. K. Andersen witnessed how parents watered their child with the blood of the executed right at the scaffold. In this case, the executioners had assistants who collected the blood of criminals in special bowls. This was practiced until 1865.
DEAD BUSINESS
And yet, mummies were most often used for medicinal purposes in the Middle Ages. By the way, one of the drugs obtained in this way was used by millions of people, without even thinking that they were eating corpses. This drug is a mummy, the cost of which is simply fantastic today (12 thousand dollars per kilogram). The healing properties of the remedy that the Egyptians used to embalm the bodies of the dead have been known since the 10th century.
In nature, mummy is quite rare, and the demand for it grew constantly. So they began to clean it off the skulls and bones of the Egyptian mummies. In this regard, a massive robbery of Egyptian tombs began. Traders from Cairo hired entire armies of ordinary Egyptians to get them a mummy by digging up tombs.
Well, when this source began to dry up, they figured out how to get a mummy from the corpses of executed criminals, drying them in the sun. But that was not enough either. Then the robbers opened the graves, took out the dead from them and boiled them in cauldrons until the flesh was separated from the bones. The resulting liquid was poured into flasks and sold to traders.
The scale of the trade in processed corpses has become monstrous. In 1585, an agent of a Turkish trading company sent about 600 pounds of dried human flesh to England. However, all these transportation costs made such production unprofitable. In 1609, a book by O. Kroll was published in Germany, where the author gave advice on how to get a mummy, "without leaving the cash register":
“Take the intact, clean corpse of a red-haired 24-year-old man who was executed no earlier than one day ago, preferably by hanging, wheeling, or impalement. Soak it one day and one night under the sun and moon, then cut it into large pieces and sprinkle with myrrh and aloe powder so that it doesn't get too bitter."
According to another recipe, the dead body had to be soaked in wine alcohol for several days, and then dried in the wind to a state of corned beef.
Such a scale of corpse-eating led to the fact that by 1600 Egypt had lost 95% of the tombs, and in Europe, armed guards were on duty at the cemeteries.
Medical cannibalism was practiced in Europe until the middle of the 18th century, and then gradually states began to enact laws prohibiting the eating of corpses. This phenomenon was completely eliminated only by the end of the 19th century.
THE SWEET DEATH
Simple eating of corpses, as in Europe, seemed not enough to the East. The healers of the Arabian Peninsula claimed that a drug made from a corpse would become even more miraculous if a person agreed to sacrifice himself. And there were such.
In the 12th century, in Arabian bazaars, one could buy a "honey man" - a human corpse mummified with honey. Pieces of the "honey man" were taken orally to treat various injuries.
In the reference book "Medicinal Substances in Chinese Medicine" published in 1597, the method of preparing such a drug is described in detail: "In Arabia, there are men, aged 70 to 80, who want to give their bodies in order to save others. Such a person does not eat food, he only drinks honey and bathes in honey. After a month, he excretes only honey (urine and excrement are composed of honey) and soon dies. His assistant places him in a stone coffin filled with honey, in which he soaks. The month and year of death are recorded on the coffin. After 100 years, the coffin is opened. The candied body is used to heal broken and injured limbs. When a small amount is taken internally, the pain stops immediately.
In Persia, men under the age of 30 were used to prepare the "honey man". For several years such a man lived without need of anything, and then he was drowned in a bath with honey and hashish. The dead body was sealed in a coffin for 150 years.
There is evidence that in East Africa, in the city of Asmara, in the research center is still a sarcophagus with a "honey man", presumably a man aged 35 years. The tomb is filled with a substance that resembles honey. The mummy itself continues to ooze honey. But the strangest thing is not this, but the fact that the devices record, albeit insignificant, but nevertheless, brain activity, as if the person had not died, but was in a state of deep trance.
There are no explanations for this yet. Local legends say that during the time of famine, the entire population of the city was fed with honey, which was given by the mummy, however, mass poisoning was observed. Before the artifact fell into the hands of scientists, it was inherited from one ruling family to another.
SCIENCE IS NOT AGAINST
It turns out that the echo of medical cannibalism has reached the 20th century. In 1951, at the Azerbaijan Medical Institute, one of the medical scientists A. M. Khudaz defended his thesis, which contained recommendations for the preparation of an anti-burn drug from dead human flesh (cadaverol).
Khudaz suggested melting the internal fat in a water bath. Such a remedy, according to the dissertation candidate, healed burn wounds twice as fast. But the Azerbaijani scientist was not a pioneer, in 1909, human fat (humanol) was used in his practice by Dr. Godlander, and in 1938 by the Soviet doctor L. D. Kortavov.
Some scientists agree with the hypothesis that a substance obtained as a result of prolonged boiling of a corpse may have healing properties. A research group led by Professor Makarov demonstrated an artificially obtained mummy at one of the seminars.
This, as it is also called, mineral-organic substrate is a complex of trace elements that make up any living being. And you can get it from the decomposed remains of living organisms. Shilajit obtained in this way has a positive effect on the performance of people, reduces the effects of radiation damage and restores male potency.
Today, all normal people are horrified by the stories of how the Nazis brewed soap from concentration camp prisoners during World War II. Against this background, the production of drugs from the placenta is gaining more and more popularity. In maternity hospitals in Europe, they even stipulate the procedure in advance. Either the mother takes the placenta for herself, or allows it to be transferred for processing. And this is not much different from medieval medical cannibalism.
Alexandra ORLOVA, “Steps. Secrets and mysteries №14 June 2016