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    Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything
    Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything
    Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything
    Audiobook10 hours

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

    Written by Lydia Kang and Nate Pedersen

    Narrated by Hillary Huber

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    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. This book seamlessly combines macabre humor with science and storytelling to reveal an important and disturbing side of the ever-evolving field of medicine.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateJun 26, 2018
    ISBN9781977383105
    Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything
    Author

    Lydia Kang

    Lydia Kang is a physician and author of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. She was born in Baltimore, Maryland and graduated from Columbia University and New York University School of Medicine. She completed her residency and chief residency at Bellevue Hospital in New York City and currently lives in the midwest, where she continues to practice internal medicine.

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    Reviews for Quackery

    4/5

    255 ratings22 reviews

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    • 5/5
      After listening to this audiobook, you will come to the conclusion that before modern day medicine, it really was just a guessing game. Will leaches cure it? Maybe animal testicles are the best method for birth control? lol What? Let's use bile as a face cream...Ok. It was a great book. I was laughing out loud and recoiling at the words, sometimes all in the same sentence. I was greatly disturbed and learned more than I ever cared to know about the early days of medicine.
    • 4/5
      A fun fact filled book! It was great learning of some of the different “medicines” and “cures” of bygone years.
    • 4/5
      Interesting topic, though a little dry at times. Hillary Huber is an exceptional audiobook voice!
    • 5/5
      The TV Series The Knick brought me here and I was not disappointed. After thinking most of the stuff in the tv series was outlandish. Throughout this book it proved that things were worse, much worse.
    • 5/5
      What a wonderful, snarky and humorous review of Quackery in society. Unfortunately quackery continues even today as thousands have died during the Covid pandemic by trying alternative cures. A must read; though one should be warned if one take offense to sexual content. Otherwise go for it.
    • 4/5
      The subtitle pretty much tells what this book is about. What to know all the health benefits of mercury, radium, arsenic and strychnine? That’s just the start! Of course, there is also a look at bloodletting and leeches, and much much more. This is told with humour and plenty of fun illustrations from the past. Very interesting stuff. Some of what they look at here were things doctors actually did, but some other things were what the “quacks” were selling. Unfortunately, I’m not sure how much I’ll remember. It looks at so many different things in short bursts of information, but was definitely interesting as I read it. The authors are a doctor and a journalist.
    • 5/5
      Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything by Lydia Kang is a fascinating book with plenty of disgusting ideas that posed as treatments in the past. I liked the interesting ways the author presented the information. Presented cleverly and humorously, despite most treatments or cures were deadly or very gross or painful!I learned where some saying he originated from! Wow, not what I expected! I would not want to have drowned in the 1800 century! Haha! You will have to read this to find out! I can't write it, the cure is so odd, Goodreads and Amazon wouldn't post my review!This is definitely an interesting read, especially for me being a RN. If you know someone in the health field, they might enjoy this too!
    • 4/5
      A fascinating but humorous look at some of the stupidest attempts and ways we tried to cure medicine throughout history. Mostly about 'quack doctors' and how they preyed on the innocent and desperate. A fun lively sense of humor from the co-authors makes it a quick and easy and fun read.
    • 5/5
      A laugh every paragraph despite the grim subject matter. Highly recommended!
    • 4/5
      If you like Mary Roach’s works, you’ll probably enjoy this compendium of wacky, revolting, and occasionally dangerous “cures” from the past.

    • 4/5
      Very educational, very entertaining, and quite eye-opening in a "they can't have seriously thought that would work, could they" kind of way.

      Recommended simply for the great writing!
    • 3/5
      Not particularly light reading material, though some of these topics are so out there almost laughable. But then you think how many took these remedies seriously and it's not all that laughable. One impression I was left with was wondering, what we are doing today in medicine that will be written in a similar book years from now.
    • 5/5
      As soon as I saw Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything by Lydia Kang I knew that I had to get it in my hands. If the name alone doesn't intrigue you then I don't know what will. This book is full to bursting with historical facts about crazy medical practices through the ages. It is an excellent resource about the history of the medical profession as well as education and social change. Much like when I read Soonish, I felt that it was a little heavy with the 'relatable' humor but this was easily overlooked. (I think Kang pulled it off better anyway.) As someone who has read quite a bit about the history of medicine, I was surprised by just how much I didn't know. For example, did you know that leeches have 3 stomachs, 3 jaws, and 100 teeth in each of those jaws?! Kang sets up the different medical practices and procedures by first giving a history of the person that started it off (generally a 'medical practitioner' or someone at least purporting to be one). She then shares accounts from the patients who endured such crazy routines (like bloodletting or ingesting arsenic) paired with diagrams of the medical equipment used to accomplish such feats. (I hope you have a strong stomach for the bloodletting chapter.) I especially enjoyed the little asides about what we now know about the concoctions put together long ago to 'cure' and how the vast majority of them were either complete hokum or actually increased the chances of the patient suffering an agonizing death. It makes you wonder how the future generations will view our supposedly 'innovative' medicines and treatments of the sick. Will we be seen as medical charlatans and blind fools or will they take into account the socioeconomic and political climate that we live in and how that shapes our view on medicine as a whole? As you read this book (and I hope you will) ponder that very question because then perhaps you won't judge past generations quite so harshly...unless it's the guys who took Strychnine in order to increase their sex drive. Always judge those guys. 9/10
    • 2/5
      2.5
      The information was interesting, the layout was pretty good (nice cover!)... The writing was rather juvenile - but what should I expect from a book on quack cures?
      My husband, who is an RN, enjoyed it.
    • 4/5
      Delightful and saddening simultaneously. By a doctor (Kang) and journalist (Pedersen), Quackery runs through the catalog of “cures” from the past, including mercury and arsenic, strychnine and tobacco, phlebotomy and lobotomy, and various machines that were supposed to diagnose and/or cure. For example, the Web is now full of memes about the dreadful (but usually exaggerated) toxicity of mercury; in previous times the reverse was true, and mercury was considered an appropriate treatment for all sorts of things – especially for childhood ailments. I reviewed Mistress of the Elgin Marbles, a biography of Mary Nesbit, Countess of Elgin; among the items quoted were letters from Countess Elgin to her nanny, exhorting her to make sure the children got their proper mercury dosage. Warning: spoiler for Strong Poison


      Arsenic was seen as a cosmetic (even if ingested, rather than applied to the skin). In a link to literature, the supposed beneficial properties of arsenic figure in Dorothy L. Sayer’s first Vane/Wimsey novel, Strong Poison. (To further the link with literature, Wimsey solves the mystery by reading Housman’s A Shropshire Lad). Kang and Pedersen, alas, suggest the key idea (that it’s possible to develop an immunity to arsenic by gradual small doses) is spurious.


      end spoilerThat’s just some of the chemical elements; there are plenty of other examples.Although funny and an easy read, the book is marred by some inadequate fact checking on some of the illustrations. In their discussion of “hysteria”, Kang and Pedersen note that Victorian doctors treated various “female ailments” by genital massage (see the movie Hysteria). However, two of the illustrations they use are suspect; one is a supposed ad from the “Beaver Moon Vibrator Company” and the other is for “Dr. Swift” and the health benefits of “gentle massage”. I can’t track down the “Beaver Moon Vibrator Company”, but the name is pretty suspicious; the illustration accompanying Dr. Swift and his massage has been traced on the internet and actually comes from an early French gynecology manual. (Both are credited to “Public Domain” in Quackery). It’s certainly true that the history of medicine produces plenty of examples of mistreatment of women at the hands of male doctors, ranging from unpleasant to heinous, but fake illustrations don’t help things any. Worth a read for the humor and for a reminder that the best and brightest in medicine were sometimes disastrously wrong. Alas, no footnotes, references or suggestions for further reading. Extensive illustrations but as mentioned above two of the illustrations I tried to find a source for seem to be spurious. In addition to being a practicing MD, author Lydia Kang is a successful novelist; I’ll have to track down some of her books.
    • 5/5
      Ratings: ?????Quackery is a tour through the most unusual, wacky, and downright bizarre medications, tinctures, and medical tricks used down the years. Odd as most may seem, many of these were the paving stones along the road to medical innovation. There are five different sections looking at the various tools, tinctures, bizarre animal-based cures and tricks such as radionics that our ancestors used over the course of time. At the end of each section is a brief “Hall of Shame” focusing on different topics such as Women’s Health, Men’s Health, Antidotes, and Eye Care.Section One covers the use of elements such as mercury and antimony in treating ailments. Section Two deals with plant derived ‘medicines’ such as tobacco, cocaine, and opiates, and how their use evolved. Also includes the use of dirt.Section Three looks at 'tools’ like surgery techniques, lobotomies, and anesthesia. Section Four is all about animal medicine including leeches, anthropophagy, and animal derivative meds.Section Five covers 'mysterious powers’, such as electricity, mesmerism, and radionics.This book is packed with so much neat information! It's fascinating the things humanity has believed through the ages. We’ve gone through many trials, and made many errors to get to where we are today medical-wise. It's so hard to believe we once thought ingesting things like mercury, strychnine, and radium were beneficial, or that cocaine and opium were in medications casually given to children. Or the various means and methods leading up to modern anaesthesia. Things I particularly enjoyed were learning about the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and how they found mercury in the latrine pits, verifying the members had used a particular medicine en route, Phineas Gage and the history of mesmerism that evolved to modern hypnotherapy. Other things of interest and amusement were butt bellows, and the theory that blowing smoke up the ass was helpful in drownings, the evolution of vibrators as medical tools that turned into sex toys, Frankenstenian experiments with electricity, and using mummies as a cure for, well, anything. If you love history, and medical trivia, this is the perfect book for you!***Dos mere to Workman Publishing for providing an egalley ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.
    • 4/5
      Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything by Lydia King is a 2017 Workman Publishing Company publication. A jaw dropping collection of gruesome and ghastly concoctions and procedures guaranteed to cure whatever ails you… if it doesn’t kill you first. Before there was an FDA to weed out potentially dangerous ‘snake oil’ curse, the market was open to all manner of experimental potions and concoctions sold to an unsuspecting public. This is a fascinating look at some of the most horrifying cases where strychnine and arsenic found its way into tonics designed to cure specific ailments or used for beauty treatments. As the title suggests this is a very brief history of incredible cure-alls, medical treatments and procedures. It is unbelievable and shocking at times, and could make some readers a little uncomfortable. While some may have been well intentioned, none of these so -called cures were proven, studied, analyzed or deemed safe for human use, especially in such large doses. But, even when proof of the danger some of these chemicals posed, cover-ups were not unheard of- such as with the tobacco industry, which cleverly employed doctors to advertise their products.The chapter on tobacco was particularly interesting on several levels, as was the chapter on cocaine. But, the second half of the book was dedicated to procedures such as performing a lobotomy, bloodletting, leeches, which was akin to using torture devices. Thank goodness, the author chose to use humor as a way of off- setting the more cringeworthy areas of the book. In fact, I found myself chuckling a few times at the author’s dry comments and jokes, which took gallows humor to a whole new level. Even though we do have agencies that test products for long term side effects and safety, and one could go on a long diatribe about the frustrations the FDA can cause when erring on the side of caution, slowing down the process for potentially life- saving drugs, or on occasion they miss potential dangers, or allow carefully worded descriptions on food labels that are very misleading, there are still many products lining shelves today that promise quick weight loss, miracle cures, and don’t even get me started on the claims many beauty aids try to sell you- (although those usually safe to use). When you see a disclaimer on a bottle of vitamins declaring it is not backed by the FDA, you may want to do a little research. Many of these over the counter pills, herbs, and tonics could interact with medication, or they just don’t work- period. I’ve used these natural herbs many times with various degrees of success, but I do urge caution. My point, is that charlatans, swindlers and con artists are still as plentiful as they were back centuries ago, often catering to and taking advantage of people who are desperate, looking for a quick beauty or weight loss fix. So, despite our many advances some things never change.However, I for one, am glad it is a bit harder to poison people with Arsenic, Antimony, or Strychnine. I am also happy we know the dangers of tobacco use and that cocaine is addictive, and surgeons wash their hands and wear surgical gloves, and that their tools are sanitized- so there is that. Overall, this is a fascinating look back at practices, rituals, and chemicals we once thought were okay to use, but as it turns out- not so much. It also makes me appreciate how far we’ve come medicinally, and thankful we don’t use bugs, snakes, or animals based medicine- (or use them for testing), or depend upon the touch of a King to cure us. This is a quick read, replete with photographs and drawings, and sketches. This book will appeal to history buffs, science and medicine enthusiasts, or anyone who likes to read educational material. The book is well organized and utterly fascinating!
    • 5/5
      In Quackery, Lydia King provides a hilarious look at some of the most outrageous medical practices throughout history. Teething baby? Mercury cream will calm them right down. Want a pill you can take and still hand down to your kids? Try antimony tablets! IPA too bland for your tastes? Strychnine will provide the bitter buzz you crave! From cocaine tooth drops to lobotomies to irradiated water to tobacco smoke enemas, this book covers an amazing amount of snake oil, some touted by the medical minds of their day and some not.The book is incredibly entertaining and liberally sprinkled with photos and drawings (some truly nightmare inspiring). This is one of those science books you can read and not even realize how much information you’re learning. Want to find out which cutting edge medical treatment contributed to the deaths of Byron, Mozart, and George Washington? Which animal’s testicles you should wear around your neck to prevent pregnancy? Or why corn flakes are part of an anti-masturbation diet? Look no further!Any one who likes a good dose of humor with their nonfiction will enjoy this book. If you like Mary Roach‘s writing, Unmentionable by Therese Oneill, or any other books in that vein, this book was meant for you.An advanced copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
    • 5/5
      A very interesting book about bad medical treatments over the ages (even though some have a grain of truth to them). They include poisons, electricity, precious metals and crazy surgeries. There is truly a "sucker born every minute". .How about a tapeworm diet or a tobacco smoke enema? Lot of visual aids but in my ARC copy the captions are written in a foreign language. Also, there were no sources listed so you have to take the authors at their word which is hard for me as a college history teacher. Nevertheless, it was a whole lot of squeamish fun.
    • 4/5
      3.5 Regardless of the less than ideal state of the world today, this is one of those books that at least medically, make one grateful that we were born in today's medical world. This book is incredibly comprehensive and we'll researched. I know most of us have heard of the use of leeches, cold water cures, opium, electro shock therapy and the use of these have made us shudder with the knowledge we have now.Some of the things in this book I had never heard before. Such as the use of skulls and brain parts of the dead to cure epilepsy, and mummy infused poultices to cure many different ailments. Mercury infusions for syphilis, oil from human fat for pain and also as a cancer treatment. There is so much in this book, even past sex toys and animal derived cures. Nasty, nasty! The background of these things, how they came to be, how they were packaged and sold is part of this thorough book. One thing though that bothered me when it seemed to be overdone is the authors pithy comments, which in the beginning seemed amusing, but began to wear. How did people survive some of these things? Well of course many didn't, but those that did were amazingly lucky or smart enough to stop taking these things when they seemed to be doing more harm. Probably like many of us did in the world before safe playground equipment, seatbelts and bike helmets.ARC from Netgalley.
    • 5/5
      humanity, snark-fest, nonfiction, medical I got this book from the publisher via Netgalley shortly after reading another horrific nonfiction book on radium poisoning, so reading this one took longer than it should have. Especially as this one is designed to be a reality check, not inflame the reader to anger. In this very well researched compendium of the idiocy of mankind through the ages, the varied negative results of attempts to cure man's ills is balanced with bad puns and snarky asides. That is a good thing, in my opinion. From Roman and Egyptian times until now, treatment practices have both remained similar (especially in the snake oil sense) and built upon earlier trials and errors. There are multiple examples of misguided usage under each heading and subheading. Did you know that "mad as a hatter" refers to mercury poisoning due to the process of making a hat? What about the well known business of selling radium toothpaste? And then there are all those treatments for "wandering womb". The various herbals included strychnine and the opiates. The one thing that was a positive in the 1860s was that medical opiate use most likely reduced the mortality from cholera and dysentery. I certainly did not know of the lingering misuse of strychnine in athletics. And here I thought it was only popular in murder mysteries! Then it moves along to the ever popular use of tools for bloodletting. This practice continued far longer than sense would indicate, being used even for battle wounds! It was also the real cause of death for George Washington, not the pneumonia! Bloodletting using leeches was also used in cases of stroke. Todays medical knowledge and pharmaceuticals use a bio similar product to dissolve clots in occlusive strokes. Another resurrected treatment is the use of (now sterile) maggots to remove dead tissues from wounds. And how could the practice of Trephining be ignored? The drilling of a hole in the skull to relieve pressure or stop seizures or cure madness has been going on since before the Aztecs. Not a good thing before sterile technique, but archeology has proved that some did live afterwards. We do continue to be a gullible species, but with the advent of some of the anti psychotic meds, at least we have stopped doing lobotomy. But there has been a resurrection of the use of electroshock therapy in some areas. There's a lot more in this book, but the authors (and me, too) hope that the readers will learn not only history from this book, but to use more uncommon sense when faced with todays nostrums and panaceas (don't get me started on drug advertising! ).This book is well worth the money, and the illustrations and references were very interesting (even in PDF format).Disclaimer. In addition to being a history geek, I have been a registered nurse for more years than I care to admit.
    • 3/5
      Written by a medical doctor (Kang) and a freelance journalist (Pedersen), this book is part medical history, part cautionary tale, and part stand up comic’s routine. As the title suggests, the main focus is on the various nostrums, panaceas, and procedures that certain unscrupulous individuals have foisted on a credulous public over the centuries. These charlatans, also known as quacksalvers, or simply “quacks,” at best sold worthless remedies. At worst, their potions were laced with toxic chemicals that killed, rather than cured, the ill and desperate. Taking a topical approach, the authors divide their book into five sections, each one covering a range of questionable approaches to the treatment of human maladies. Within each section, a single chapter is devoted to a specific drug, substance, instrument, or what have you. Therefore, the section on “Elements” contains separate discussions on the uses and abuses of Mercury, Antimony, Arsenic, Gold, and Radium & Radon. Succeeding sections are entitled “Plants & Soil” (Example: tobacco), “Tools” (bloodletting), “Animals” (leeches), and “Mysterious Powers” (electricity). The text is further enlivened with sidebar articles, historic photographs and other illustrations of items discussed and end-of-chapter “Hall of Shame” synopses of various medical fads, such as weight loss schemes. What is to be admired with this text is the underlying message of caveat emptor, the ancient Roman saying that in plain English means, “let the buyer beware.” A little critical thinking goes a long way towards avoiding dangerous rip-offs. There is also much interesting historical medical trivia, such as the theory of the four humors, one of which was blood. It was long thought that an imbalance of any one was the cause of disease, hence bloodletting, or the opening of a vein, to release an “overabundance” of that substance, and thus to restore equilibrium and a state of health. The problem, of course, is that such theories were based on conjecture, rather than sound medical reasoning or, indeed, any kind of clinical evidence. This leads to a not so admirable feature regarding this tome, namely, painting the disreputable and greedy along with the caring and legitimate with the same black brush. There is a huge difference between ignorance and deceit. At least some of the practitioners that the authors take to task, such as Paracelsus, a Sixteenth Century alchemist, and Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, did not have the benefit of an education at a modern day medical school. These men did the best they could with the meager tools and knowledge at their disposal. Review by Michael F. Bemis