The Stone of Folly

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The Stone of Folly refers to a possible procedure in the 15th century involving trepanation and extraction of a stone thought to be the cause of the patient's folly. It was thought that the physician would keep a stone hidden in his pocket to produce at the last minute from the patient's wound creating the illusion that the extracted stone was the pathology to blame.

Can be used as a good example for why evidence based medicine is so important.

This procedure is demonstrated in the cynical painting "The Extraction of the Stone of Madness" by Hieronymus Bosch.

The procedure and the painting depicting it inspired the 2002 short film of the same name.

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