Egyptian conscripts pulled out teeth to evade musket-loading duty.

Evidence

More seriously, many fellahin went as far as maiming themselves in the hope that they might be declared medically unfit for service in the army. Initially, the most common way of maiming was to remove the front teeth in order to be deemed incapable of loading the muskets. However, when Mehmed Ali was informed that a lot of men in Upper Egypt had resorted to this habit, he said that since the training manuals did not specify which teeth should be used in loading the musket, these men could use other teeth and should therefore be conscripted. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1352

Categorization

• CANDY: The image of the Pasha answering tooth-maiming by ruling that any teeth will load a musket is a grotesque, self-contained anecdote.