Snake Oil and Indian Liniment.

Quackery in medicine is as old as medicine itself. In times of crisis, desperate patients often believe extraordinary claims. In the annals of pain-killer quack medicine, snake oil, elixirs, nostrums and Indian liniments hold a special position. NYU College of Dentistry (NYUCD) has a collection of 234 bottles of such medicines dating from the mid-1800s through 1940. This paper is the fifth in a series of articles featuring "Elixirs of the Past" in which we bring to light six more samples with claims to traditional Chinese or American Indian medicine using snake oil: Virex Compound, Rattlesnake Bill's Oil, Electric Indian Liniment, The King of All Indian Oils, Millerhaus Antiseptic Oil and Celebrated Indian Lotion. The six examples are just a few quack medications linked to fraud, overdose, addiction or death. In 1906, Congress enacted The Pure Food and Drug Act and reinforced it with the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1938, to stop unsubstantiated medicinal claims and control the use of addictive and dangerous substances. The modern-day use of social media to advertise quack medicine is in some ways even more brazen than selling patent medicine a century ago.

Magnetism.

Quackery in medicine is as old as medicine itself. In times of crisis desperate patients often believe extraordinary claims. In the annals of pain killer quack medicine, elixirs, nostrums and liniments hold a special position. The College of Dentistry at NYU received a collection of 234 bottles of nostrums and liniments dating from approximately 1850 through 1940. In this paper, the FOURTH in a series of articles featuring "Elixirs of the Past" we bring to light four more samples claiming to have magnetic properties: Dr. J.R. Miller's Magnetic Balm, Havens' Electromagnetic Liniment, Headman's Magnetic Liniments, and Magnetic Cream. It goes without saying that none of these had any magnetic properties. In 1906, Congress enacted The Pure Food and Drug Act to prohibit exaggerated or unsubstantiated claims in the marketing and labeling of household products and to control the use of potentially harmful ingredients. The modern-day use of internet advertisements to make unsupported claims is in some ways even more brazen than the advertisements from a century ago.

Managing the "Obscene M.D.": Medical Publishing, the Medical Profession, and the Changing Definition of Obscenity in Mid-Victorian England.

This article examines links between mid-Victorian opposition to commerce in popular works on sexual health and the introduction of a legal test of obscenity, in the 1868 trial R. v. Hicklin, that opened the public distribution of any work that contained sexual information to prosecution. The article demonstrates how both campaigning medical journals' crusades against "obscene quackery" and judicial and anti-vice groups who aimed to protect public morals responded to unruly trade in medical print by linking popular medical works with public corruption. When this link was codified, it became a double-edged sword for medical authorities. The Hicklin test provided these authorities with a blunt tool for disciplining professional medical behavior. However, it also radically narrowed the parameters through which even the most established practitioners could communicate medical information without risking censure.

Hypnosis lessons by stage magnetizers: Medical and lay hypnotists in Spain.

During the late nineteenth century, Spanish physicians had few chances to observe how hypnosis worked within a clinical context. However, they had abundant opportunities to watch lay hypnotizers in action during private demonstrations or on stage. Drawing on the exemplary cases of the magnetizers Alberto Santini Sgaluppi (a.k.a. Alberto Das) and Onofroff, in this paper I discuss the positive influence of stage magnetizers on medical hypnosis in Spain. I argue that, owing to the absence of medical training in hypnosis, the stage magnetizers' demonstrations became practical hypnosis lessons for many physicians willing to learn from them instead of condemning them. I conclude that Spain might be no exception in this regard, and that further research should be undertaken into practices in other countries.

Magic, Mind Control, and the Body Electric: "Materia Medica" in Sir Walter Scott's Library at Abbotsford.

This chapter examines the medical texts, or "Materia Medica", held by Sir Walter Scott in his library at Abbotsford. While the vast majority of Scott's medical texts are antiquarian, his library also contains rare tracts and ephemera relating to the medical practice of the infamous quack, Dr James Graham (1745-94), and the Burke and Hare controversy of 1828 and its aftermath. Examining Scott's holdings of medical texts in relation to his own health and that of his family and friends, it is argued that the lack of contemporary medical self-help texts in his library is striking and indicative of his stoical attitude towards health, despite his clear interest in medical culture.

[Universal elixir of Thomas-Nicolas Larcheret (1819) and his elixirian and normal doctrine]. / L'Elixir universel de Thomas-Nicolas Larcheret (1819), et sa doctrine élixirienne et normale.

Thomas-Nicolas Larcheret, teacher in singing, declamation, guitar or lyre and violin, author of music and books, but also inventor of the universal elixir by his name, is a good example of quack of the 19th century. His book Larcheregium ou Dictionnaires spéciaux de mon élixir, ainsi que toute ma doctrine et de mes adhérens (Larcheregium or special Dictionaries of my elixir, as well as all my doctrine and my adherents), published in 1819, deserves a deep study to show the most frequently used arguments by the ones who emphasize the value of their secret remedy. The opportunities are there to present themselves as victims of medical authorities, experts and authorities as a whole, that do not recognize the value of their product. The only acceptable judge for them is the experience reported by the patients who are able to demonstrate the efficacy of the product since they do buy it (probably at a very high price). From this viewpoint, the book of Larcheret is a good example of turning the authorities down and of diatribe against physicians and pharmacists. It is also the demonstration that, even with the Empire's new regulations against secret remedies and quacks, they will still persist for a large part of the 19th century in France.

Practical divinity and medical ethics: lawful versus unlawful medicine in the writings of William Perkins (1558-1602).

This article examines for the first time the theologically based medical ethics of the late sixteenth-century English Calvinist minister William Perkins. Although Perkins did not write a single focused book on the subject of medical ethics, he addressed a variety of moral issues in medicine in his numerous treatises on how laypeople should conduct themselves in their vocations and in all aspects of their daily lives. Perkins wrote on familiar issues such as the qualities of a good physician, the conduct of sick persons, the role of the minister in healing, and obligations in time of pestilence. His most significant contribution was his distinction between "lawful" and "unlawful" medicine, the latter category including both medical astrology and magic. Perkins's works reached a far greater audience in England and especially New England than did the treatises of contemporary secular medical ethics authors and his writings were influential in guiding the moral thinking of many pious medical practitioners and laypersons.

The enlightenment kidney-nephrology in and about the eighteenth century.

The intellectual movement of inquiry by direct observation and inductive reasoning to acquire new knowledge matured in the Enlightenment. In medicine, personal observation as the prime mover of investigation began in anatomy, and gradually extended into studies of function, site of disease, and composition of body fluids. This led to the generation of new information on renal structure, function, and urine composition in health and to some extent in disease. Studies on the dissected, injected, and teased kidneys have left us with many of the eponymous renal structures described by Eustachio, Bellini, Malpighi, and Ferrein. Subsequent studies by Haller of the renal circulation and scrutiny of the separation of serous fluid from blood in the renal cortical glandular components established the beginnings of renal physiology. The movement to integrate chemistry into medicine championed by Boerhaave, which launched studies of urine composition in diabetes, urolithiasis, and gout led to the exploration of a chemical basis of other diseases. Albuminous precipitate in the urine of a dropsical case was described by Cotugno, but its association with kidney disease went unappreciated. Most of the new information on the kidney was communicated to and discussed in the increasing number of new scientific societies that were being formed, and transmitted to the eager members of the learned bourgeoisie of the period in the Encyclopédie of Diderot and d'Alembert.