Fastfacts
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
Things you always never wanted to know
"Curare," the arrow poison used by South American Indians, was once essential to surgeons performing abdominal operations because it was the only drug that could be used as a muscle relaxant. The patient's muscles became much too stiff for safety during the operation, and curare was used to relax them.
Charles Darwin believed that the proposed first printing of his book "The Origin of Species" would be too large: 1,250 copies. The edition, however, was sold out the very first day of publication.
Tired of pounding pavements looking for a job, Humphrey O'Sullivan of Boston sat down one day and invented the rubber heel.
As late as 1890, nearly 75 percent of Americans had to fetch their mail from a post office. A community had to have at least 10,000 people to be eligible for home delivery, and most people lived in towns or on farms.
In the Middle Ages, brothels were under the protection of the community and prostitutes formed guilds in German cities. In Hamburg today, a multi-story brothel sanctioned by authorities.