Ten Thousand Years of Treating Illness

Trepanation, the surgical removal of a piece of the skull to expose the dura mater, is attested from around 8000 BCE, making it perhaps the oldest surgical procedure for which archaeological evidence survives.

Bloodletting, the withdrawal of blood from a patient to treat or prevent illness, is attested from around 3000 BCE and remained orthodox medical practice across much of the Western world for over two thousand years, grounded in humoral theory.

Cauterization, burning a part of the body to remove or close it off, is attested from around 1600 BCE, used to stop bleeding, destroy unwanted growths and prevent infection when no other treatment was available.

Cupping therapy, in which local suction is created on the skin using heated cups, is attested from around 450 BCE, historically believed to draw out illness or restore bodily balance.

Moxibustion, the traditional Chinese medicine therapy of burning dried mugwort on or near particular points of the body, is attested from around 500 CE, often applied at the same points used in acupuncture.

Mercurial therapy, the use of mercury compounds taken by mouth, rubbed into the skin as an ointment or inhaled as a fumigant, is attested from 1496, and became the standard treatment for syphilis from that date.

Animal magnetism, also known as mesmerism, is attested from 1779, a treatment theory promoted by the German physician Franz Mesmer, who posited an invisible natural force he called animal magnetism.

Osteopathy is attested from 1874, a system of alternative medicine emphasizing physical manipulation of the body's muscle tissue and bones; in most countries today its practitioners are not medically trained physicians.

Malariotherapy, also called malaria therapy or malaria inoculation, is attested from 1917, an archaic procedure that treated disease by deliberately infecting a patient with malaria parasites.

Lobotomy is attested from 1935, a discredited neurosurgical procedure severing connections in the brain's prefrontal cortex, developed by the Portuguese neurologist Antonio Egas Moniz to treat psychiatric and neurological disorders.