Tapeworm Diet Pills
In Victorian England, women’s beauty standards of the time believed that, “it is a woman’s business to be beautifulâ€. But it was also believed that woman should, “eat as little as will satisfy her appetite; never allowing herself, however, to rise from the table hungryâ€. This spawned the popularity of the Tapeworm Diet.
Woman would take a pill containing a tapeworm egg. Once hatched, the tapeworm would grow and consume what the host eats.
The problem begins when you reach your ideal weight and you want to remove the tapeworm. One method includes holding a glass of milk in front of the patient’s anus and waiting with a hammer. Another method involves inserting a cylinder with food down the throat of a patient, which sometimes caused the patient to choke to death.
Tapeworm diet pills are now illegal in some countries like the USA and Australia.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-horrifying-legacy-of-the-victorian-tapeworm-diet