“Amusement excursions” to mental hospitals
Patients of psychiatric hospitals were treated awfully in the past: staff rarely fed people, though relatives paid for patients’ accommodation. But it wasn’t enough for asylum owners. They created a small business: willing visitors could pay a certain sum of money to have a look at the poor people and even poke them with a stick.
Body parts collection
Only insane people collect human body parts as trophies nowadays. But it was just a standard hobbycausing no disgust in the past: reputable gentlemen had their own pathoanatomical rooms at home. Even soldiers used to take home their enemy’s skull. In this picture, we see an American sailor: during the Second World War, he took the skull of a Japanese soldier.