THE NUMBER THIRTEEN
Triskaidekaphobia is a morbid fear of the number thirteen or the date Friday the thirteenth.
In early Christianity, the number thirteen was considered unlucky because it was the number of persons present at the Last Supper, and Friday unlucky because Christ was said to have been crucified on a Friday.
11. THE VAPORS
MEDICAL MALADIES AND CURIOUS CURES
“DESPERATE MALADIES REQUIRE DESPERATE REMEDIES.”—FRENCH PROVERB
BRAIN-EATING AMOEBAS
Associated Press writer Chris Kahn reported in September 2007 that six people had died from a braineating amoeba detected in Lake Havasu, a man-made lake on the border of Colorado and Arizona. The amoeba, Naegleria fowleri, had killed twenty-three people in the United States between 1995 and 2004.
The amoeba thrives in warm waters, and infectious levels have been detected in lakes, hot springs, and even dirty swimming pools. When infected water gets into the body through the nose, the amoeba is able to travel up the olfactory nerve to the brain, destroying tissue along the way. Once within the brain, it begins to feed on brain cells.
ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE
State-of-the-art medicine in prehistoric times was designed to keep alien demon spirits from infecting the body. Preventive medicine included magic, charms, incantations, and talismans. If, despite preventive measures, demons entered a patient's body, prehistoric medical personnel drove out the malicious spirits by inducing violent vomiting. If that didn't work, making the body inhospitable to the spirit was the next step; caregivers would begin a regimen of beating, torturing, and starving the patient. For especially resistant demons, a hole drilled into the patient's head was prescribed to encourage the demon to escape.
SAINTLY WOMAN
Apollonia is the patron saint of toothache sufferers.
That's because in A.D. 249, the Romans tortured her by pulling out all her teeth in an attempt to get her to forsake Christianity. She didn't and saved the Romans the task of burning her at the stake by jumping into the fire of her own accord. Her teeth and jaws are now on display at churches throughout Europe.
NEVERENDING HICCUPS
In January 2007, Jennifer Mee, a fifteen-year-old from Florida, got the hiccups. For more than three weeks, she continued to hiccup, close to fifty times a minute, despite trying many home remedies and consulting doctors. She held her breath; she put sugar under her tongue. She breathed into a paper bag and tried drinking out of the wrong side of a glass. She had blood tests and an MRI. Nothing worked—not even various people's attempts to scare the hiccups out of her. Why the hiccups began and what they were a symptom of could not be determined.
HIDDEN LIMBS
In 2007, in Maiden, North Carolina, a man bought a smoker at a police auction of abandoned items from a storage facility. When he opened up the smoker, he discovered what he thought was wood wrapped up in paper. The bundle instead turned out to be a human leg that had been amputated at just above the knee. Police contacted the owners of the storage facility. It turned out that the owner's son had had his leg amputated after a plane crash and kept the leg for “religious reasons.” She and her son drove some thirty-five miles to retrieve it from the man who had bought the smoker.
GEORGE WASHINGTON'S TEETH
Contrary to popular myth, George Washington didn't have wooden teeth. He had four sets of dentures made from a mix of hippopotamus bone, elephant ivory, and the teeth from cows and dead people. None of them worked well, and the discomfort of his dentures is one reason he looks so sour in his portraits.
“Madness is tonic and invigorating. It makes the sane more sane. The only ones who are unable to profit by it are the insane.” —HENRY MILLER
MAGGOT ACT
Investigators in Tacoma, Washington, were able to identify two generations of maggots on a body that had died by a gunshot wound. In doing so, they determined the approximate date of the corpse's demise, as a maggot's life cycle lasts only about three weeks. Armed with the estimated date of death, the investigators were able to trace the deceased's whereabouts and eventually find the killer.
FULL STOMACH
The Northern State Hospital for the Insane, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, boasts one of the more bizarre exhibits in museum history—a collection of artifacts that patients have swallowed during the asylum's 150-year history. Among the items are scissors, a bedspring, a toothbrush, and a thermometer. Also featured are twenty-six spoons that were all swallowed by one man.
MYSTERY CURE
It's easy to laugh at outlandish folk medicines of the past, but consider this: In 2001, a mysterious ancient Chinese potion made of ground rock and toad venom was investigated as a promising experimental cancer treatment at Sloane-Kettering Hospital in New York City. Scientists had no idea why, but the arsenic trioxide in the potion appeared to cure a particularly devastating kind of leukemia.
PRESERVATIVES
Today's morticians report that dead bodies don't decom-pose as fast as they used to. They speculate the change is due to people eating food containing so many more preservatives than food of the past.
MORE THAN 700 MILLION PEOPLE WORLDWIDE HOST A BLOOD-SUCKING HOOKWORM IN THEIR BODIES.
THREE-LEGGED WONDER
Francesco Lentini was born in 1889 with what appeared to be a tail but which was in fact a nearly developed foot growing from the base of his spine. Although he was treated as a disabled outcast most of his life, he found work in Italian sideshows and was quoted as having said, “I have never complained. I think life is beautiful, and I enjoy living it.” He lived to the ripe age of seventy-eight.
HEALING JEWELS
Originally, earrings were worn to guard the ears from illness. Earrings, particularly diamond earrings, were also believed to help eyesight. Wearing one silver and one gold earring was believed to be a cure for headaches.
STRANGE VIRGIN BIRTH
During World War II a young woman in Germany, Emmie Marie Jones, gave birth to a daughter, despite the fact that she insisted she was a virgin. In 1955, scientists in England did genetic testing and discovered that Emmie and her daughter were genetically identical twins. The only explanation the scientists could offer was that the shock of the bombing caused parthenogenesis, the spontaneous splitting of an unfertilized egg.
IN 1938, NEW YORK BECAME THE FIRST STATE TO PASS A LAW THAT REQUIRED MEDICAL TESTS FOR MARRIAGE-LICENSE APPLICANTS.
GET PREGNANT, STOP ARTHRITIS
No one knows why, but pregnancy is known to alleviate the stiffness of arthritis.
MOVE OVER, GENE SIMMONS
A disease called hypertrophy causes the tongue to enlarge. Once enlarged, it may become too big for the mouth and can grow long enough to reach one's chest. Side effects include possible deformity of the teeth and mouth, and the afflicted person may choke on her or his tongue.
EVERY PERSON HAS A UNIQUE TONGUE PRINT.
ESCAPE THE COLD
If you're ever desperate for a winter free of the common cold and flu, go to the North Pole. It's impossible to catch a cold there, because the air is too frigid for the microorganisms that foster colds to survive.
DID YOU KNOW . . . ?
One in five women suffer from migraines.
The human body contains 32 million bacteria per square inch. Our bodies are ever evolving. Our little toes and appendixes are getting smaller because we don't need them, and our teeth are shrinking in size due to the amount of processed and cooked foods we consume.
The average human will shed about 1.5 pounds of skin particles every year, and by seventy years of age, that adds up to 105 pounds.
Humans lose and then regenerate their outer epidermis about every month, making almost a thousand new skins in an average life span.
The human body is composed of around 10 trillion cells. On any given day three billion of those cells die and are replaced, except for the ones in your brain. Once they die, they are gone forever.
The rarest blood type is type A-H and has
been found in less than a dozen people.
A person will die from total lack of sleep sooner than from starvation. Death will occur after about ten days without sleep, while starvation takes a few weeks.
A sneeze can exceed 100 mph.
Beards are the fastest growing hairs on the human body.
Fingernails grow faster than toenails.
The brain is composed of 85 percent water, and its consistency is somewhere between that of jelly and cooked pasta.
Three hundred million cells die in the human body every minute.
If stretched out, the human small intestine would measure twenty-two feet long.
Arriazia is a disorder that prevents women from growing breasts.
WHEN I GROW UP, I WANT TO BE A PINEAPPLE
Contagious follicular keratosis causes the sufferers to grow small, yellow, spiny growths all over the body.
EVERY MAN'S DREAM COME TRUE
Men with diphallic terata have not one but two penises.
GIVING BINGING A NEW MEANING
A starving fashion model who had been purging in order to look svelte for a photo shoot began to eat frantically after the shoot was completed. She ate a whopping nineteen pounds of food in all—and the stomach can only hold four quarts of liquid. Her stomach ruptured, killing her instantly.
LIFELONG BAD HAIR DAYS
Hair becomes irreversibly tangled and eventually becomes matted, at which point it may also become sticky, foul-smelling, and cause scalp inflammation. This condition, called Plica, or Polish ringworm, was discovered in Poland and is known to affect primarily Polish people.
THE GIANT LEAP FORWARD
THAT'S KEEPING YOU DOWN
Any time people with a Saltatoric spasm try to stand, they are forced to jump about uncontrollably due to muscular spasms that contract their calves, hips, knees, and back.
MODERN-DAY ZOMBIE
Narcolepsy, an uncommon sleep disorder, is a state of perpetual exhaustion. Contrary to common belief, a narcoleptic is not going to fall asleep randomly or in midsentence while speaking. However, if someone else dominates the conversation and bores them for long enough, narcoleptics may very well fall asleep. Side effects of narcolepsy include cataplexy (complete loss of muscle tone), hallucinations, and caffeine resistance.
A WOMAN'S HEART BEATS FASTER THAN A MAN'S.
SKULL TRAPS
Trepanation is defined as the practice of removing a portion of the skull to expose the brain. It's been practiced for thousands of years, both for medical reasons and as a means of achieving enlightenment. Archaeologists in France have found a 7,000-year-old skull that had undergone trepanation, and the procedure was practiced by the ancient Egyptians, Chinese, Indians, Romans, and Greeks.
JOB'S SYNDROME
Lesions that form on the skin, in the sinuses, and in the lungs are part of a condition called Job's syndrome, which is named for the biblical character who was covered with boils. It predominantly affects red-haired females, but everyone is susceptible to the odd disease.
ELEPHANT MAN
Joseph Merrick, also known as the Elephant Man, was a sideshow performer in Europe during the 1880s. He was rescued by Dr. Frederick Treves, who called his condition Elephant man disease and wrote the definitive book, The Elephant Man and Other Reminiscences, about him. Treves described Merrick as “deformed in body, face, head, and limbs,” noting that “his skin, thick and pendulous, hung in folds and resembled the hide of an elephant.”
Merrick was mistreated for most of his life, and when sideshows were outlawed in 1886, he was out of work and virtually unemployable because of his looks. After Merrick suffered from an acute bronchial infection in a train station, Treves was contacted, and he put Merrick under his care and study. The elephant man was well received in Victorian society; a kind of novelty, he was well mannered and interesting, and became a favorite of Queen Victoria. He died at the age of twentyseven after dislocating his neck in his sleep.
“I FIND THE MEDICINE WORSE THAN THE MALADY.” —JOHN FLETCHER
12. SUPERSTITIONS AND CURSES
TO HEX, LAMBAST, AND BEWITCH
“Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg and howlet's wing,
For a charm of pow'rful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.”
—WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, MACBETH
FINDING A FOUR-LEAF CLOVER
The belief that four-leaf clovers are good luck comes from the Druids, ancient residents of the British Isles. Several times a year, they gathered in oak groves to settle legal disputes and offer sacrifices. They ended their gatherings by hunting for four-leaf clovers because they believed a four-leaf enabled its owner to see evil spirits and witches—and therefore avoid these things.
THROWING PENNIES INTO A WELL
Some ancient people believed spirits living in springs and fountains demanded tributes—usually tributes of flesh. Young Mayan girls, for example, were sometimes tossed into the Well of Sacrifice (where they would “marry” the spirits). Today, people just toss the spirits a penny or two for luck.
KNOCKING ON WOOD
In the Middle Ages, churchmen insisted that knocking on wood was part of their tradition of prayer, since Christ was crucified on a wooden cross. But the tradition of knocking on wood actually started several thousands of years earlier, with a different deity. Both Native Americans and ancient Greeks developed the belief (independently) that oak trees were the domain of an important god. By knocking on an oak, they were communicating with the god and asking for his forgiveness. The Greeks passed their tradition on to the Romans, and it became part of European lore. The oak's power was eventually transferred to all types of wood.
OPENING AN UMBRELLA INDOORS
In the eighteenth century, spring-loaded, metal-spoked umbrellas were new and unpredictable. Opening one indoors was courting disaster—the open umbrella could fly out of control and damage property or people. Therefore, opening an umbrella indoors was considered not so much bad luck as just dangerous.
MIRRORS
Long ago, people looked at their reflections in water and were amazed because they thought they were glimpsing their soul. When the reflected image was altered by waves or ripples, they thought that their soul was in danger. Over time, this belief morphed into the belief that if someone broke a mirror, it would take seven years for their soul to return to them. The term of seven years was established by the Romans, who believed it took a body seven years to repair itself. These beliefs eventually became the superstition that breaking a mirror means seven years of bad luck.
Another superstition says that should a mirror fall and break on its own, a death in the home is soon to be expected. Even the house where the mirror breaks is thought to be cursed for seven years. Looking at your reflection in a mirror by candlelight is also said to bring bad luck.
“SUPERSTITION BRINGS THE GODS INTO EVEN THE SMALLEST MATTERS.” —TITUS LIVY
CANDLES
Candles are shrouded in mystery and superstition. First of all, beware of a candle that blows out during a ceremony. It's a warning that evil is nearby.
Three lit candles in a row are bad luck, so be sure to blow one out if you see them.
Light a candle inside a jack-o'-lantern on Halloween to guard against evil spirits that are lurking about.
If you look into a mirror by candlelight, you not only risk giving yourself bad luck, but you also may find the souls of the dead.
A corpse candle is a small, sourceless flame that floats through the night air and is believed to be a lost soul. This sight is considered an omen of death.
SALT
For thousands of years, superstitions about salt have been incorporated into religious, d
omestic, and business practices. Because salt could preserve food, people thought it had the power to protect them as well. Salt was poured into wells to purify water against evil and placed on the chest of a corpse before burial. Mothers even salted their babies, believing salt would lengthen their lives.
In biblical times, people ate salt to ensure that business agreements would remain true. But salt was not always considered good luck—it was forbidden to speak the word “salt” while at sea for fear of the consequences.
The Book of the Bizarre: Freaky Facts and Strange Stories Page 14
