Gunpowder for Wounds
In early battlefield medicine, gunpowder wasn’t just a weapon—it was a treatment. Soldiers would pour gunpowder into open wounds and light it on fire to cauterize the flesh and “kill infection.” The process was excruciating and unpredictable, often causing deeper burns, tissue death, or deadly shock.
While the heat might have sealed wounds temporarily, the lack of antiseptics meant infection usually followed. The practice was also used in folk medicine for animal bites or knife injuries. It was dangerous, crude, and rooted more in spectacle than science. Today, we leave the gunpowder on the battlefield—where it belongs.
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