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Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything
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Audible Audiobook
Listening Length: 10 hours and 29 minutes
Program Type: Audiobook
Version: Unabridged
Publisher: Tantor Audio
Audible.com Release Date: June 26, 2018
Language: English, English
ASIN: B07DPTR9XH
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
As a physician I have been fascinated by quackery. My specialty, rheumatology, has seen a remarkable variety of "cures" including things like soaking hands in dish washing detergent or eating 9 gin soaked raisins. On the other hand, we have used gold and penicillamine to treat rheumatoid arthritis. I wish the authors had made more of an attempt to separate quackery from the legitimate attempt to improve medical care. The concepts of placebo and double blind studies are relatively new. Someone writing a book on quackery 50 years might consider therapies we currently use to be bogus. Gold and penicillamine work; we have just perfected better drugs and dropped using older ones. That does not mean we are quacks.Finally, I wish there were more references. I realize this is not a textbook but some documentation might be nice.It is, however, an excellent light read for anyone curious about medical history or fascinated by patients desperate for a cure and the remarkable number of evil people willing to prey on them.
Easy read, well organized. A ton of information. Once I got past the shock of what has been offered as cure-all, I realized that almost all these so-called cures were as expensive as they were ineffective. I don't think the rich were more gullible than the poor: they might simply had more time to worry about themselves. Plus, all these quacks figured out quickly where the market was. What is missing is more historical context. For example: The four humors theory is briefly touched upon but it could have used a more in depth discussion: it was at the basis of many of the cures which made sense when understood under that theory. Another example: "like cures like", a basic tenet of Alchemy and homeopathy, pushed to the limits with things like: heart = sun and other astrological concepts. I think however that Paracelsus got a bit of a bad rap in this book. He did lay down the "dose makes the poison " concept, still valid today. Paracelsus was not as handsome as the authors depict him, as can be seen in title pages of his books. But these are details.
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.Another dismaying feature is the weirdly inappropriate comical tone the authors take in describing what is frankly horrifying and revolting. The chapter on “Enemas & Clysters†is quite literally potty humor in the worst sense of the phrase. Furthermore, the constant use of slang and vulgarity represents both dumbed down science and a catering to the lowest common denominator. One would think that the target audience being aimed at is fourteen-year-old boys.If the reader can get past the lame one-liners and emphasis on the more grotesque aspects of the human organism, this book serves an important function in reminding us not to believe everything we read or hear and is a frightening reminder of what people have done to their own bodies in the name of health.Reviewer: Michael F. Bemis, Independent Reference Book Reviewer
Interesting. Could have been a great book but a bit too cute for my tastes. Exclamation points overused and clever jokes that aren’t. Some people would find the humor very entertaining.
Entertaining, witty, and chock full of the kinds of facts I personally love to share at parties, Lydia Kang and Nate Pederson's QUACKERY: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE WORST WAYS TO CURE EVERYTHING was a delightfully morbid adventure into medical history. Ranging from coffee enemas to putting leeches on your tonsils, this book explores the fascinating and often pseudoscientific lengths people have gone to cure the incurable.My favorite aspect of this book was the wonderful writing that made the science and stories accessible to all readers. It often read more conversationally with a heavy dose of sarcasm and terrible puns. Concepts were often clarified with historical pictures and figures with fantastic captions. You'll find yourself chuckling while reading about amputations. It was truly a treat. However, I often found myself wanting more information than the short stories provided and I feel like references were lacking.If you have any interest in medical history, this book is a fantastic starting point. Kang and Pederson seamlessly weave medicine, history, and psychology into an entertaining and intriguing narrative that is sure to spur you to try to learn more. It's also so important to know what occurred in the past to understand how amazing our leaps and strides in medicine and science have been in the last couple hundred years. No more helter skelter humors or wandering uteruses around here!
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