5 Ancient Body Myths that Are Wildly Inaccurate

Early humans had some pretty odd theories about their bodies—and most of them were entirely inaccurate. Some of these ideas led to treatments that were plain ineffective, but some were downright harmful! Join Hank Green for a fun new episode of SciShow, all about our bodies and the theories of ancient humans. Let's go! Head to https://scishowfinds.com/ for hand selected artifacts of the universe! ---------- Support SciShow by becoming a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scishow ---------- Dooblydoo thanks go to the following Patreon supporters: Lazarus G, Sam Lutfi, D.A. Noe, سلطان الخليفي, Piya Shedden, KatieMarie Magnone, Scott Satovsky Jr, Charles Southerland, Patrick D. Ashmore, Tim Curwick, charles george, Kevin Bealer, Chris Peters ---------- Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet? Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/scishow Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/scishow Tumblr: http://scishow.tumblr.com Instagram: http://instagram.com/thescishow ---------- Sources: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/shakespeare/fourhumors.html https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j.ctt1w76vxr.21?seq=26#page_scan_tab_contents https://www.britannica.com/science/humor-ancient-physiology http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0251%3Atext%3Dintro%3Achapter%3D9 https://web.archive.org/web/20110708073035/http://www.bloodmed.com/home/hannpdf/bjh3130.pdf http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/contagion/humoraltheory.html https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/bitstream/handle/10871/9021/Keith%20Stewart%20Presentation%20for%20Humanities%20PGR%20Conference%20April%20and%20May%202013.pdf;sequence=3 https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-coffee-chocolate-and-tea-overturned-1500-year-old-medical-mindset-180963339/ https://academic.oup.com/labmed/article-abstract/14/12/791/2642842?redirectedFrom=PDF https://www.amjmedsci.com/article/S0002-9629(15)30578-4/pdf http://www.carlsterner.com/research/files/History_of_Miasmic_Theory_2007.pdf http://broughttolife.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/techniques/miasmatheory http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/choleratheories.html https://www.infezmed.it/media/journal/Vol_20_1_2012_9.pdf http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/554637/ https://www.colgate.com/en-us/oral-health/conditions/cavities/tooth-worm-0716 https://web.archive.org/web/20170427202326/http://thechirurgeonsapprentice.com/2014/01/06/the-battle-of-the-tooth-worm/ https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s007840050070#page-1 http://arthistoryresources.net/visual-experience-2014/extramission-intromission.html https://web.stanford.edu/class/history13/earlysciencelab/body/eyespages/eye.html https://www.spring.org.uk/2008/03/50-of-college-students-think-we-see.php https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12094435 http://www.muslimheritage.com/article/ibn-al-haytham-eye-and-brain-vision-and-perception http://neuroportraits.eu/portrait/felix-platter https://www.britannica.com/science/light#ref258388 https://www.aaojournal.org/article/S0161-6420(15)01431-1/pdf https://www.researchgate.net/publication/247752397_The_Fire_That_Comes_from_the_Eye https://embryo.asu.edu/pages/ernst-haeckels-biogenetic-law-1866 https://embryo.asu.edu/pages/meckel-serres-conception-recapitulation https://embryo.asu.edu/pages/ernst-heinrich-philipp-august-haeckel-1834-1919