People Tried Unworkable Methods to Ward off Illness Outbreaks in History

37. Washing Oneself With Urine

Since ancient times, urine was collected for a variety of uses, such as whitening cloth, developing and fixing dyes, and tanning leather. During the Black Death, many came to believe that urine had healing properties. So they soaked themselves in the stuff.

Plague victims were bathed in urine several times a day, in the belief that doing so would either cure them, or at least alleviate the symptoms. Of course, it did not do such thing – it just caused them to spend their final hours badly stinking. However, urine did not cause them to stink anywhere near as bad as the next cure.