Quackery : : a Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything

Locations
Call Number: Adult Book / Nonfiction / Literary Arts / Humor / Kang, Lydia
On Shelf At: Malletts Creek Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Literary Arts / Humor / Kang, Lydia	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Literary Arts / Humor / Kang, Lydia	4-week checkout	Due 05-05-2024
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Nonfiction / Literary Arts / Humor / Kang, Lydia	4-week checkout	Due 05-02-2024

Includes index.
Elements: prescriptions from the periodic table. Antimony ; Mercury ; Arsenic ; Radium ; Gold -- The women's health hall of shame -- Plants & soil: nature's gifts. Opiates ; Strychnine ; Tobacco ; Cocaine ; Alcohol ; Earth -- The antidotes hall of shame -- Tools: slicing, dicing, dousing & draining. Bloodletting ; Lobotomy ; Cautery & blistering ; Enemas ; Hydrotherapy ; Surgery ; Anesthesia -- The men's health hall of shame -- Animals: creepy crawlies, corpses, and the healing power of the human body. Leeches ; Cannibalism & corpse medicine ; Animal-derived medicines ; Sex ; Fasting -- The weight loss hall of shame -- Mysterious powers: waves, rays, and curious airs. Electricity ; Animal magnetism ; Light ; Radionics ; The king's touch -- The eye care hall of shame -- The cancer cure hall of shame.
"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"-- Provided by publisher.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

CHOICE Review
Publishers Weekly Review
Summary / Annotation
Author Notes

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

It's awful, and scientific and wonderful and funny and gross. submitted by tbbrown76 on August 7, 2018, 10:57pm A must-read for any real scientist. A should-read for everybody. The part about using mercury to cure nearly everything...sheesh. Even Abe Lincoln. My favorite tidbit? The saliva waterfall. Highly, highly recommended.
Tom

Quakery submitted by vrevelli on August 29, 2022, 12:00am If you love learning about these methods, this is the book for you!