Trepanning

Trepanning is the oldest surgery know to man. It comes down to boring, cutting, and scraping open holes in a human skull. It was practised as early as 10,000 B.C. in Europe, South America, and some parts of Northern Africa.

If you had been transported to the 19th century, suffered from a headache and you wanted to be trepanned (have a hole drilled in your head), the best place to have it done would be in Papua New Guinea. When they did this they sealed the hole with coconut milk which was sterile and thus reduced infection.

In London, 78% of trepanning procedures resulted in death from infection rather than having a hole in the head. Trepanning is so far as we know the earliest form of surgery. We know people survived it because the bone and tissue healed around skulls found in archaeological digs. The earliest known forms involved getting the patient’s head between your legs and scraping away the hair, flesh and bone with a sharp stone.

Crux [Noun.]‏

In astronomy, a distinctive winter constellation of the southern sky, shaped like a cross. It appears in the flags of several countries in Oceania.

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The name of the Hehe tribe of Tanzania comes from their feared ‘hee-hee’ battle cry.

Huli Wigman from the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea

Taphephobia is the fear of being buried alive. A phobia which sounds surprisingly natural. The great 18th century clown Grimaldi was so frightened of being buried alive that he specified his head must be cut off first, which his family duly arranged.

Both dogs and horses can smell fear in humans.

When Prime Minister Harold Macmillan was asked what he feared most he said: “Events, dear boy, events…”

In several areas in Papua New Guinea, women can be punished by public gang rape, often sanctioned by elders.

See other: Quite Interesting Facts

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Kiwifruit use up more than their own weight in aviation fuel getting from New Zealand to Europe.

Foeniculum Vulgare or Fennel

According to Andrew Marshall’s writings on Burma in The Trouser People, the Burmese idiom, “Excuse me sir, but I see your department store is open, even on weekends,” means, “Your fly is open.”

Finocchio (fennel) is Italian street slang for a homosexual.

Sheep are castrated without breaking the skin.

Andrew Graham-Dixon discovered that the painter Caravaggio accidentally killed Ranuccio Tomassoni on a tennis court. He was merely attempting to cut off his testicles.