2015-01-11
A compelling article in the Journal of Medical Biography recounts the story of Bayard Holmes and Henry Cotton, two American "surgeon-psychiatrists" who believed that they could cure schizophrenia by removing parts of their patients' intestines (and other organs).
What's more, both men tested their treatments on their own children - with tragic results. The article is by Jonathan Davidson of Duke University.
Holmes and Cotton had a theory to justify their extreme cures: autointoxica