Caroline Rance's Blog, page 12

Busy curing a man in America

I have no background to the following newspaper story – I don't know who the tailor was or even whether he really existed. The newspaper's purpose in printing the tale is clearly to amuse readers and allow them to congratulate themselves that they aren't among the supposed gullible masses who would consult quacks. The implicit criticism [...]

Mother's Friend

In honour of the birth of The Quack Doctor's new baby niece, who arrived early Saturday morning in the car park of Harlow Hospital, this post looks at a liniment that claimed to make labour a doddle. Mother's Friend was on sale in the US and Canada by the mid-1880s, though some adverts said it [...]

International Obscura Day – April 9 2011

Atlas Obscura, the online compendium of the world's wonders, curiosities, and esoterica, is hosting its second annual International Obscura Day on April 9, 2011, in partnership with Hendrick's Gin. Last year's Obscura Day saw 4000 attendees at events in 80 cities, in 20 countries all over the world. Obscura Day is an 'day of expeditions, [...]

Authors For Japan

In the aftermath of the horrific events in Japan, The Red Cross urgently needs funds to support its humanitarian efforts as it deploys mobile medical teams to assist the injured, and provides blankets and temporary shelter to those made homeless by the disaster. Author Keris Stainton has come up with a brilliant fundraising idea. The Authors [...]

Tuna – a vegetable compound

There's often something a bit fishy about patent remedies, but this one appeared before the advent of canned tuna and, for the average non-sea-going punter, the name did not have the piscatorial associations it has now. A company called Fels and Davis began promoting it in 1879, but by the following year Davis had quietly disappeared [...]

The Benefits of Phrenology

In honour of UK Census Day, here's one way in which phrenology proved of great help in 1891: Source: The Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle, 11 April 1891 . .

The Ear-Doctor Fraud

A deaf person seeking treatment in 1850s London appears to have had plenty of options, judging by these advertisements in Reynolds's Weekly Newspaper. The only problem was, the advertisers all belonged to the same gang – and if you knew what was in their medicine, you would not let it anywhere near your ears. Multiple [...]

The Electropathic and Zander Institute

Regular readers might remember Cornelius Bennett Harness, who carried on a lucrative business in electro-magnetic products in London in the 1880s and 1890s. I have blogged about his Electric Corsets and the Ammoniaphone, an inhaler promising artificial Italian air to singers and public speakers. Harness's showrooms, known as the Electropathic and Zander Institute, were on [...]

The Worm-Doctor of Shoreditch

It must be at least a couple of months since we last heard from our old friend Ascaris lumbricoides, so it's time he made another appearance on The Quack Doctor together with a few of his helminthic chums. I'm putting together a talk about the career of John Gardner, a former soldier and picture-framer who [...]

Bourbon Poultry Cure

If your Easter chicks aren't looking too chirpy, why not perk them up with a dose of this 20th-century Kentucky remedy? As a 1911 advert put it: Sick fowls don't pay, Droopy hens won't lay and the Poultry Cure was a bargain at only 50 cents for a quantity that could be diluted to 12 [...]