Quackery Quotes

“All things are poison and nothing is without poison, only the dosage makes a thing not poison.”
― Lydia Kang, Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything

“But behind every misguided treatment—from Ottomans eating clay to keep the plague away to Victorian gents sitting in a mercury steam room for their syphilis to epilepsy sufferers sipping gladiator blood in ancient Rome—is the incredible power of the human desire to live.”
― Lydia Kang, Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything

“Then there were antimony pills. Unlike our one-use pharmaceuticals today, these metal pills were heavy, and after passing through the bowels they were often relatively unchanged. They were dutifully retrieved from latrines, washed, and reused over and over again. Talk about recycling. The “everlasting pills” or “perpetual pills” were often lovingly handed down from generation to generation as an heirloom.”
― Lydia Kang, Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything

“Though the element is no longer used in mainstream medicine, mercury has managed to slither its way into many a doctor’s office. It is perhaps oddly appropriate that the symbol for the god Mercury was the caduceus—two snakes entwined on a winged rod. The symbol is commonly and incorrectly associated with the medical establishment, due to a mistake when the US Army Medical Corps adopted the symbol in 1902. Soon after, it became a ubiquitous sign of healing. But in fact, the caduceus represents Mercury—the god of financial gain, commerce, thieves, and trickery.”
― Lydia Kang, Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything

“Unfortunately, the theory that 'more is better' is a really, really crappy theory when it comes to arsenic.”
― Lydia Kang, Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything

“redheaded victims’ blood was especially sought after. Weasley lovers of the world, look away. We beg you.”
― Lydia Kang, Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything

“It’s always best to be ready for a medical emergency and nothing says “prepared” like having a tobacco smoke enema kit next to your first aid supplies.”
― Lydia Kang, Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything

“Today, Coca-Cola still actually contains coca extract, just without the fun part. Although the exact recipe is a closely guarded trade secret, the company does import coca leaves legally from Peru’s National Coca Company. After the cocaine is extracted and sold for pharmaceutical use by eye, ear, nose, and throat specialists as a topical anesthesia, the remaining flavor of the coca leaves is enveloped into the secret recipe.”
― Lydia Kang, Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything

“Today, we now know that overconsumption of gin—or really any alcohol—can also lead to “gin blossoms.” Yes, sometimes that means a late-night dose of sentimentality and “Hey Jealousy” on repeat as you wax nostalgic about the Clinton years, but also, more harmfully, gin blossoms on your face. These gin blossoms are the red lines and dots on the faces of heavy drinkers, which are dilated capillaries caused by drinking too much alcohol.”
― Lydia Kang, Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything

“If only my AP Bio textbook had been so fun. From Mad Cow to Monkeypox, here’s everything you wanted to know about the diseases you’re glad you don’t have.” –Mo Rocca”
― Lydia Kang, Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything

“Hindsight makes it easy to laugh at many of the treatments in this book, but no doubt Dr. Google has assisted you in searching for a simple cure to a pesky problem. None of us are immune to wanting a quick fix. A hundred years ago, you might have been the person buying that strychnine tonic!”
― Lydia Kang, Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything

“creating cocaine wasn’t a terrible enough legacy, the twenty-six-year-old doctor began experimenting with ethylene and sulfur dichloride, eventually inventing mustard gas and killing himself in the process.)”
― Lydia Kang, Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything

“Trota was also the first writer to point out that sexual diseases were perhaps a bit intimate for female patients to discuss with their overwhelmingly male physicians. She viewed abstinence as a cause of illness and advised an active sex life within the bounds of marriage. She also recommended musk oil and mint to placate sexual desire, if need be. Musk oil and mint not your thing? Not to worry. Maybe the Victorians can offer something that’s more your style.”
― Lydia Kang, Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything

“Trota of Salerno,”
― Lydia Kang, Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything

“It is perhaps oddly appropriate that the symbol for the god Mercury was the caduceus—two snakes entwined on a winged rod. The symbol is commonly and incorrectly associated with the medical establishment, due to a mistake when the US Army Medical Corps adopted the symbol in 1902. Soon after, it became a ubiquitous sign of healing. But in fact, the caduceus represents Mercury—the god of financial gain, commerce, thieves, and trickery.”
― Nate Pedersen, Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything

“the treatment of hypochondria: Mercury acts in this disease, 1, by abstracting morbid excitement from the brain to the mouth. 2, by removing visceral obstructions. And, 3, by changing the cause of our patient’s complaints and fixing them wholly upon his sore mouth. The salivation will do still more service if it excite some degree of resentment against the patient’s physician or friends.”
― Lydia Kang, Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything

“His speed was so mighty that once he accidentally sliced off the testicles of the patient. A free castration, to boot! Another time, he accidentally cut off the fingers of his assistant (who often held the leg in place); during the procedure, one of the onlookers dropped dead from terror when the knife slashed close enough to cut his coat. Unfortunately, the patient died. The poor assistant also later died of gangrene from the finger amputations, and thus Liston became the proud surgeon who could now boast a stunning 300 percent mortality rate from one surgery.”
― Lydia Kang, Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything

“The terribly tragic outcome of Halsted’s experiments with cocaine was his own addiction. The doctor began injecting cocaine directly into his veins for its stimulative effects, quickly becoming an addict. Eventually, he was sent to Butler Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, where the recognized treatment for drug addiction was injecting the patient with large doses of morphine.”
― Lydia Kang, Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything

“With the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, the United States cracked down on false and misleading labels, unsafe ingredients in food, and the adulteration of medical and food products. In 1930, the watchdog bureau became known as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Later laws in 1938 covered medical devices and cosmetics, and a 1962 law added scientific rigor to the drug industry.”
― Lydia Kang, Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything

“At the turn of the nineteenth century, poor English children would wade into murky freshwater and sell the leeches clinging to their legs for pocket money.”
― Lydia Kang, Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything

“He even had a car he called the “lobotomobile,” which he had outfitted with all of his equipment to use as he traveled”
― Lydia Kang, Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything

“Thatcher did attract endless tabloid speculation toward the end of her career about her ability to appear younger as she grew older. So it was either the electric baths or the natural vigor generated by crushing a welfare state and destroying worker pensions.”
― Lydia Kang, Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything