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Medicine
Vol. 1
Medicine Fun Facts
The Spanish Flu, originally thought to have originated in Spain, was actually genetically traced to a young soldier in South Carolina whose battalion was later shipped out to France (Final Exits p.53).
Medicine
Vol. 2
Medicine Fun Facts
When bloodletting was popular, when the cure didn’t work, victims were told “be patient” so frequently that now a “patient” is anyone in the doctor’s care (Final Exits p.55).
Death
Vol. 1
Death Fun Facts
When being buried alive wasn’t all that uncommon, bells on the surface were attached to corpses. The inventor of this contraption became so preoccupied to the point of psychosis over being buried alive, he soaked himself in linseed oil and set himself ablaze (Final Exits p.65).
American History
Vol. 1
American History Fun Facts
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died on July 4th, 1826, exactly 50 years after the Declaration of Independence was signed (Final Exits p.199).
Random
Vol. 1
Random Fun Facts
Jimmy Stewart (of It's a Wondeful Life fame) smuggled an alleged yeti finger out of India (grunge.com).
Weird
Vol. 1
Weird Fun Facts
People can smoke toads like a crack pipe to get aphrodisiac effects, talk about a horny toad. The U.S. law even states “Toads may not be licked” (Final Exits p.27).
Ancient
Vol. 1
Ancient Fun Facts
In the second century A.D., the fourteen-year-old emperor of Rome, Elagabalus, was reported to be a complete psychopath. One story tells how he enjoyed having broken glass mixed into his guest’s food that he would make them eat, once he fed a party camel heels, nightingale tongues, parrot heads, and flamingo brains, only to release live lions and leopards into their room. At a separate feast, he ordered some guests to be tied to a spinning water wheel and ordered everyone else to watch as they drowned. Once at a packed gladiatorial game, he released venomous snakes loose among the packed crowd (Madman’s Library p.188)
Animals
Vol. 1
Animal Fun Facts
Steve Irwin and Charles Darwin owned the same pet tortoise, Harriet (Australia Zoo).
Art History
Vol. 1
Art History Fun Facts
Da Vinci’s The Last Supper is in a terrible state and always has been. Its deterioration was noted soon after completion. By using paints of an ephemeral nature on a thin exterior wall, humidity rapidly ravaged the masterpiece. Like the ship of Theseus, just 42.5% of the painting is da Vinci’s work, 17.5% is lost, and the remaining 40% is the work of restorers (Madman’s Gallery p.61).
Death
Vol. 2
Death Fun Facts
Human Cannonballs killed half of the stunt people who attempted (Final Exits p. 19).
American History
Vol. 2
American History Fun Facts
Alexander Hamilton had been successful in 14 previous duels before dying by Burr’s gun (Final Exits p.05).
Gross
Vol. 1
Gross Fun Facts
The average ER performs twenty small-animal-from-anus removals yearly (Final Exits p.146).
Random
Vol. 2
Random Fun Facts
In the 40s, an Arkansan girl took the largest elevator fall in history, over 1000 feet, when a plane crashed into the Empire State Building. She miraculously survived (Final Exits p.120).
Medicine
Vol. 3
Medicine Fun Facts
Dr. Thomas Holmes developed the technique of embalming corpses by replacing blood with an arsenic-based formula. He opened a drugstore and found sales were brisk for his formula as well as his root beer. To attract customers, he displayed the embalmed head of a woman in the window. He requested not to be embalmed when he died. After his death, twenty embalmed corpses were discovered buried in the drugstore’s basement (Final Exits p.377).
