10 Deadly Things People Used To Think Were Harmless

8. Goat Gonads

In 1912, American radio pioneer John Romulus Brinkley bought a fake medical degree and went on to make millions with a completely unfounded surgical procedure intended to cure impotence in men.

From 1918, Brinkley performed dozens of operations during the Great Depression centred around transplanting a pair of goat testicles into an infertile man, because science.

Of course, you don€™t need a fake doctorate from Kansas City Eclectic Medical University to guess that the goat gonads were invariably rejected by the patient€™s body and multiple people died of septicaemia as a result which, to put it lightly, is a major balls-up.

 
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Peter Austin initially joined WhatCulture as an occasional contributor to our Film, Gaming and Science sections, but made the mistake of telling us that he'd been making videos in his bedroom for over a decade. Since then he's been a vital member of our YouTube team and routinely sets the standard for smart-casual wear in the office.