8. Medical student allowed patients with Yellow Fever to vomit all over him – only so he could prove his theory right. Unfortunately, his theory was wrong.
Stubbins Ffirth, a trainee doctor in Philadelphia during the early 19th century theorized that yellow fever was not contagious, believing that the drop in cases during winter showed that it was more likely a result of the heat and stresses of the summer months. And he went further than most scientists in history to prove his theory right. He started his experiments by making small incisions on his arms and pouring “fresh black vomit” obtained from a yellow-fever patient into the cuts. Next he dribbled some vomit in his eyes. He fried some up on a skillet and inhaled the fumes.
After he fashioned some vomit into a pill and swallowed it, he decided to drink entire glasses of pure, undiluted black vomit. And still he didn’t get sick. Ffirth rounded out his experiment by liberally smearing himself with other yellow-fever tainted fluids: blood, saliva, perspiration, and urine. Healthy as ever, he declared his theory proven. Unfortunately, he was wrong. Yellow fever is very contagious, but it requires direct transmission into the blood stream, usually by a mosquito, to cause infection. But considering all Ffirth did to infect himself, it is a bit of a miracle he didn’t die from yellow fever.