A Creepy Experiment With Tuberculosis Patients In The Mammoth Cave

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Video: A Creepy Experiment With Tuberculosis Patients In The Mammoth Cave

Video: A Creepy Experiment With Tuberculosis Patients In The Mammoth Cave
Video: Nature: Mammoth Cave National Park 2024, March
A Creepy Experiment With Tuberculosis Patients In The Mammoth Cave
A Creepy Experiment With Tuberculosis Patients In The Mammoth Cave
Anonim

Mammoth Cave is considered the longest in the world, but one of its most popular attractions are two stone houses left after a disastrous and frightening experiment to treat tuberculosis patients in the cave

A creepy experiment with tuberculosis in the Mammoth Cave - cave, tuberculosis, disease, experiment, dungeon, Mammoth Cave
A creepy experiment with tuberculosis in the Mammoth Cave - cave, tuberculosis, disease, experiment, dungeon, Mammoth Cave

In the west of Kentucky (USA) there is Mammoth Cave National Park - This cave is often considered the longest in the world, as its vast labyrinth of tunnels, halls and passages stretches for over 400 miles.

The cave is very popular among tourists, but it is also known for a creepy experiment that was once carried out here and after which many ghosts allegedly settled in the Mammoth Cave.

In the early 19th century, there was a doctor in Kentucky named John Croganwho was obsessed with finding a cure for tuberculosis … In that era, tuberculosis was a deadly global disease that was poorly understood and considered mysterious and almost "God's punishment."

Tuberculosis was then called in different words, for example: phthisis, consumption, scrofula or white plague. The bacterial nature of tuberculosis has not yet been studied and no one understood how tuberculosis spreads, what exactly it can do with the body of a sick person and how long a sick person can live in certain conditions.

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Doctors prescribed basically the same "medicine" for tuberculosis patients: a healthy diet, fresh air and exercise on the lungs, which did little to help patients with advanced forms of the disease. Therefore, many doctors tried to find a cure for this terrible and incomprehensible disease.

Krogan was one of the most fanatical seekers, and when he eventually contracted tuberculosis himself in 1839 after examining sick patients, finding a cure became the meaning of his life.

While researching innovative treatments for tuberculosis, Crogan stumbled upon stories about the Mammoth Cave. It was said that the air and darkness of the cave had a kind of healing and protective effect, and stories were spread that, in the tunnels of this cave, the atmosphere was so invigorating that even the corpses of animals did not decompose there.

Numerous workers working in the saltpeter mines of the Mammoth Cave also claimed that they miraculously recovered from their physical ailments after starting to work here. Some even said that they became much more cheerful and stronger when they worked here for several months.

The krogan was fascinated by these wonderful stories, after which he personally came to Mammoth Cave and walked through its halls. After that, it became a little easier for him to breathe and he decided that all the stories and stories about the Mammoth Cave were really true.

And then Krogan conceived the following: He came from a very wealthy family and he had significant savings in the bank. He took from there 10 thousand dollars and just bought the whole Mammoth Cave at once.

He planned to create here something like a sanatorium for tuberculosis patients and for this purpose he built 12 houses for patients in several large halls of the cave. The construction was completed in 1842, after which Krogan decided to conduct a "trial" experiment, placing a group of sick people in the cave.

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It is not known where and how he recruited these patients, but 15 people agreed to his terms to spend an indefinite time in a cave without going to the surface. These people were probably in great despair if they saw a better situation in the conditions they voiced than they had. In fact, all of them were at a stage when tuberculosis was already incurable and they hoped only for a miracle.

While these patients were confident in Dr. Krogan's claims that the air and darkness of the cave would cure them, the living conditions there certainly left much to be desired. In addition to the endless darkness and complete lack of daylight, confusing their biological clocks, the air in the cave was always unpleasantly cool, which, however, was encouraged, since it was believed that cool air was better for their condition.

Food was scarce, slaves brought it into the tunnels, and patients had nothing to do there but read books or preach sermons to while away the time in the eternal night. Sometimes they lit fires, and the smoke from the fires, as well as the smoke from the burning lamps, intensified their coughing.

Throughout this, tourist groups continued to visit Mammoth Cave and tourists often noticed pale, emaciated tuberculosis hiding in the dark like ghouls, and the cacophony of their coughs echoed in the darkness, even when they themselves were not visible.

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There were many reports from tourists who were overwhelmed by the painfully emaciated appearance of the patients - they looked more like otherworldly spirits than living people. One person said they looked "more like a bunch of skeletons than anything else," and another once described it as "a bizarre scene where pale, ghostly figures in robes moved faintly through corridors, slipping out of shaded corners, and the silence of the cave was broken. only the muffled coughing and muttering of their conversations."

Some of the descriptions were even more impressive, for example, one visitor said: "When they appeared in a place with a light source, it was clear that all of their eyes were completely black."

For a full five months, these unfortunate patients lived in damp cave isolation, and while some reported feeling better and healthier than before, it looks like these were exceptions. During those five months, one patient escaped when he could no longer live in the cave, and five died of their condition, after which the experiment was terminated as unsuccessful.

The krogan continued to use the cave only for tourist excursions with slave guides, and also played an important role in its development as a tourist attraction and mapping large parts of it, but he never opened his cave colony-sanatorium, despite the fact that that I still hoped this idea might work.

Moreover, Krogan never officially published the results of his bizarre experiment and avoided talking about it publicly.

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However, for many, even this was not considered a complete failure. On the contrary, many doctors in those years were inspired by the ideas of Krogan, and the idea that cave air can cure tuberculosis remained relevant for many more decades, and many tuberculosis sanatoriums tried to create cave conditions for their patients.

Dr. Krogan died of tuberculosis in 1849, and tuberculosis was eventually cured with the development of the BCG vaccine in 1921 and the discovery of the antibiotic Streptomycin in 1943.

Currently, two of the houses built by Krogan for patients can still be seen in Mammoth Cave. And not just to see, but to listen to stories about the ghosts of those five tuberculosis patients who died here during their 5-month detention from time to time among them.

Many tourists still report hearing ghostly wheezing and coughing from the darkness near houses, as well as seeing ghostly pale silhouettes of people.

Ghostly activity has also been reported from a place called Cadaveric Rock, where the bodies of Krogan's dead patients were temporarily piled up until they were brought to the surface.

There are also reports that ghosts of slave guides were seen here, some of whom also died in the cave. There have also been numerous reports of people feeling invisible hands poking and pushing them.

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