Demonic cats.

Shocking history pages! What did the cats do? Why did the Emperor's horse become a consul? And who buried his foot?

This is now the seals conquered the world. And in the thirteenth century the tailed had to be quite hard. Gregory IX in 1234 issued a bull, in which he declared the cats the incarnations of Satan. The pope did not dare to disobey those days, so the total extermination of innocent animals began. But to kill the rats and mice, from which the cats rescued medieval residents, no one guessed, so that soon they emboldened and made many misfortunes.

These small rodents became carriers of plague, from which many people died. Medicine was at an unimaginably low level.

But the art of torture in the Middle Ages was well developed. Practiced the so-called ordalia - tests by fire and water. To prove his case, the offender needed not an attorney, but extraordinary abilities. The man was thrown into the water. If he swam, it means that the higher forces recognized him as innocent. Or even more interesting: the convict's hand was immersed in a vat of boiling water.

It was believed that God would protect an innocent man.

Many historical facts today sound shocking. However, there are those that surprised even contemporaries. The ancient Roman emperor Caligula so adored his horse Incits, which made him a citizen of the city. Then the loving owner was no longer able to stop: The incitus was granted the post of senator, and then the horse got into candidates for the post of consul. When Caligula was treacherously killed, the fate of the horse was decided by his colleagues in the senate, and quite original.

Since he did not commit atrocities and did not give Caligula bad advice, they decided to keep him alive. And that he ceased to be a senator, simply changed the property qualification. In the absence of finance, the horse ceased to occupy this position.

But the love of animals is usually the case. And the Mexican general Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna adored his foot. And so much that, having lost her because of injury, he arranged a personal funeral for the dearest limb. Contemporaries were struck by the scope and solemnity of the ceremony. It was in the XIX century!

Since then, he had a wooden prosthesis. In one of the skirmishes, he fell into the hands of the Americans. This prosthesis was exhibited in the museum. He still stands there, although Mexico offered to buy the exhibit.

However, the twentieth century is rich in shocking events. Progress did not only bring about something useful. Like mushrooms after the rain, things appeared one more doubtful than the other. Mrs. Charlotte Winslow, for example, invented a sedative for children, which was very popular. The children stopped shouting and fell asleep instantly. And then it turned out that the whole syrup contained a whole cocktail of potent narcotic drugs.

When this miracle drug was used in England and in America, very many people later suffered from drug dependence.

In 1911, the drug was officially recognized as dangerous, but sold the magic remedy to especially optimistic mothers until the 1930s.