Whalesare some of the largest know creature to exist ( or , in the case of the blue giant , to haveeverexisted ) on Earth , with some species weigh up to 200 tons — and while many find the mammals awe - inspiring and proud , that brawny body composition can be a problem when decease arrives . A rotting hulk carcass that washes ashore canproducea flavor so noxious that not even seagulls or fly will go near it ; topical anesthetic encountering a whale remains have described the olfactory sensation as something that seems to permeate their entire body , go forth them retching . Some have even reported being able to smell out a all in whale nearly four miles away .
This revulsion was apparently far less discouraging in the 1890s , when some Australians briefly took to sit down in a whale carcass as a naturalremedyfor continuing nuisance .
Whaling While Intoxicated
harmonize to a report thatappearedin an 1896 subject of the London newspaperThe Pall Mall Gazette , a rheumatic man was walking along the whaling post of Twofold Bay in New South Wales , Australia , in the other 1890s with a group of Quaker when they spotted a all in whale . The mankind noticed the giant had already been slice open and so decided to leap in , possibly owing to the fact he had been wassail . He stayed within the decaying avoirdupois for more than two 60 minutes and emerged refreshed : “ He was quite sedate , ” the newspaper article noted with credulity , “ and … the rheumatism from which he had been sustain for years had entirely vanish . ”
It ’s possible this imaginary floor was apocryphal , but the whale carcass bungalow manufacture that soon emerged was not . While hulk had long been hunt for their valuable oil — it powered lamps and was used in goop , among other thing — the creature ’s curative property were abruptly in demand . Newspapers regularlyreportedon people visiting Eden , a townsfolk on Twofold Bay , to seek the unusual cure . “ In the town of Eden … is [ a ] hotel where the rheumatic patients congregate , ” theGazettecontinued . “ Upon news of a whale being taken , they are row over to the works on a boat . The whalers dig a sort of narrow grave in the body , and in this , the patient lies for two hours , as in a Turkish bath , the decomposing blubber of the whale windup stave his body and represent as a huge poultice . ”
Accordingto an 1895 storey in the Australian newspaperSnowy River Mail , three visitors crawl inside the whale and remained there for 90 minutes despite temperature inside the massive mammal reaching 105 degrees . One , identified as Mr. Anderson , claimed he no longer needed crutch after experiencing the sauna - like environs of the heavyweight . Another insisted there was notable pain moderation in his upper body . All three expressed a desire to return to the blubbery womb in the futurity .
“ No one seems to know for sure what is in the hulk that gives such relief , ” theMailwrote , “ but the general opinion is that the virtue is contained , not in the oil , but in sure gases which accumulate in the hulk ’s carcass as decomposition readiness in . ”
Writer George Lewis Beckobservedthe practice in greater detail , save that “ a cakehole is put through one side of the body sufficiently large to admit the patient , the lower part of whose body from the feet to the waist should sink in the whale ’s bowel , leaving the head , of course , outside the aperture , ” which was then closed—“otherwise the patient would not be able-bodied to breathe through the loudness of ammoniac gases which would escape from every opening night left expose . ”Men typically climbed in nude ; womenworea wool gown that they hiked up as they burrowed further inside the stiff .
Many , Beckwrote , could not last long , either fainting or needing a break before returning for further exposure . One optimal discussion plancalledfor a 30 - hour stint inside the hulk , which might offer as much as 12 months of pain relief . A right carcass waspreferredover a fresher one . The exact coinage — humpback , spermatozoan , or other — didn’t come along to matter , so long as it stunk .
The Dead Whale Tourism Board
While the whaler did n’t load for the spa treatment , Eden hoteliers on the face of it made a good profit boarding smite tourer ; perhaps they perpetuated the quackery for the revenue . Some patients even believe it could be scheduled in a manner similar to a doctor fitting : One wire Eden , hopinga stagnant whale could be machinate for his arrival on a specified day .
Time spent sew together up in a whalewasn’t the only curious historical discussion for rheumatism . philosopher’s stone of doubtful originpromisedrelief ; a doctor in Parisdeclared20 belittled acerate leaf and a proprietary fossil oil would cure it ; one maninsistedhis pain buy the farm aside after being sound off by his mule , though he stop short of commend it to anyone else .
How long the whale persisted as a remedy in Eden is indecipherable . It was still beingreferencedas tardily as 1911 , though as one newspaperobserved , “ it is refutable whether some persons might not prefer rheumatism to the whale cure . ”
record More Stories About Weird History :
