Medical cannibalism

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Medical or medicinal cannibalism is the consumption of parts of the human body, dead or alive, to treat or prevent diseases. The medical trade and pharmacological use of human body parts and fluids often arose from the belief that because the human body is able to heal itself, it can also help heal another human body. Much of medical cannibalism applied the principles of sympathetic magic, for example that powdered blood helps bleeding, human fat helps bruising, and powdered skulls help with migraines or dizziness. Medical cannibalism has been documented especially for Europe and China. In Europe, thousands of Egyptian mummies were ground up and sold as medicine, since powdered human mummy – called mummia – was thought to stop internal bleeding and to have other healing properties. Reaching its peak in the 16th century, the practice continued, in a few cases, until the early 20th century. Fresh human blood, particularly from recently executed criminals, was also highly valued because of...

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