Skepticism, Science & Pseudoscience

This also reminds me of one of my favourite books as a kid, 'The Spider's Palace' by Richard Hughes - best known for his adult novel, 'A High Wind in Jamaica'. It's a collection of short stories for children, and one of the stories is called 'Living in W’ales' and is about a little girl and a dog who set up house inside a live whale! (Hughes lived in Wales, which may have been the inspiration!)

More seriously, this is just one example of the bizarre 'cures' that people were subjected to before the advent of modern medicine.

Just as well this has fallen into disuse; apart from the gruesomeness for the patients, whales are sufficiently endangered as it is, without yet another reason for killing them.