Quackery (A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything)

What won’t we try in our quest for perfect health, beauty, and the fountain of youth?

Well, just imagine a time when doctors prescribed morphine for crying infants. When liquefied gold was touted as immortality in a glass. And when strychnine—yes, that strychnine, the one used in rat poison—was dosed like Viagra.

Looking back with fascination, horror, and not a little dash of dark, knowing humor, Quackery recounts the lively, at times unbelievable, history of medical misfires and malpractices. Ranging from the merely weird to the outright dangerous, here are dozens of outlandish, morbidly hilarious “treatments”—conceived by doctors and scientists, by spiritualists and snake oil salesmen (yes, they literally tried to sell snake oil)—that were predicated on a range of cluelessness, trial and error, and straight-up scams. With vintage illustrations, photographs, and advertisements throughout, Quackery seamlessly combines macabre humor with science and storytelling to reveal an important and disturbing side of the ever-evolving field of medicine.


 

• Dr. Mutter's Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine
• The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine
• The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine
• Strange Medicine: A Shocking History of Real Medical Practices Through the Ages
• The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth: And Other Curiosities from the History of Medicine
• The Sawbones Book: The Hilarious, Horrifying Road to Modern Medicine
• Unmentionable: The Victorian Lady's Guide to Sex, Marriage, and Manners
• The Victorian Book of the Dead
• Get Well Soon: History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them
• Ungovernable: The Victorian Parent's Guide to Raising Flawless Children