Bizarre anti-thumb-sucking device from 1923

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From Popular Science, 1923: "When the child attempts to put the finger, with band and chain attached, into its mouth, the metal parts come in contact with the tongue and roof of mouth. The result is unpleasant, but not painful."

Maybe the kids who were given this treatment grew up to become pioneers of the modern primitives body piercing culture. (Via Mostly Forbidden Zone)