Well, that’s the claim, at least. We’d have to perform clinical trials to verify it before releasing the product to market. The legal department has been very picky about that.
Ridiculously Interesting points us to this heksenfluit. That’s Dutch for witch’s flute. It’s a whistle that, when blown, repulses rats from the area, thus protecting the locale from rat-carried diseases. It’s made from bone and a rat’s paw. If it did work for its owners in Antwerp when it was made in the middle of the Nineteenth Century, it has long lost its effectiveness.
-via John Overholt | Photo: Museum aan de Stroom