11 Craziest Things People Have Done In The Name Of Science

Stubbins Ffirth, aside from possessing one of science's best names, also combined the two elements that make a normal scientist in to a mad one - he was very dedicated to his field, and had a casual disregard for his own personal safety.

Stubbins set about grossing out the scientific community at the turn of the 19th century, when he began studying the disease Yellow Fever after an epidemic swept Philadelphia, killing roughly 10% of the population. Ffirth was convinced that the disease was not contagious and that it could not be transmitted from human to human. In order to demonstrate this theory he decided that the best thing to do would be to rub the "fresh black vomit and blood obtained from patients" into open wounds about his body.

In a book by Howard A Kelly, he records that Ffirth used the blood serum, saliva, perspiration, bile, and urine of Yellow Fever patients in this manner and at no point contracted the disease himself. What Kelly didn't mention is possibly the grossest part. Ffirth himself describes the time that he drank the vomit of a Yellow Fever victim in his 1804 thesis, mixing it with water and calmly describing the flavour as "slightly acidic". Vom.

It turns out that our friend Stubbins was indeed correct in his assertions that Yellow Fever is not contagious, it is transmitted via mosquitos. Ffirth, however didn't know this and it was until 1881 that this particular detail was discovered (and no one had to drink any vomit this time).