Quackery

Avisarme cuando se agregue el libro

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. With vintage illustrations, photographs, and advertisements throughout, Quackery seamlessly combines macabre humor with science and storytelling to reveal an important and disturbing side of the ever-evolving field of medicine.

Este libro no está disponible por el momento.

548 páginas impresas

Citas

Evgenia Shuyskayacompartió una citahace 6 años
Pity those gingers. Another recipe for redheaded cadavers comes from a German physician in the early 1600s. “Choose the carcass of a red man, whole, clear without blemish, of the age of twenty-four years, that hath been hanged, broke upon a wheel, or thrust-through.” The flesh should then be chopped to bits, sprinkled with herbs like myrrh and aloe, and mashed in wine. Afterward, it was dry-cured in a shady spot, where it would become comparable to smoked meat “without stink.” If you’re envisioning beef jerky, then you’ve got the right idea, though eating the jerky wasn’t the end point. A red tincture would then be obtained from the dried flesh, and used as a restorative wound treatment or for a slew of other ailments.
- Me gusta
- Comentar
- Compartir
  Facebook
  Twitter
  Copiar enlace
- Reportar
Evgenia Shuyskayacompartió una citahace 6 años
We were so into beaver-testicle harvesting that a popular medieval legend was that beavers, weary from being hunted, would just chew off their testicles at the sight of humans and throw the newly freed body parts directly at their oppressors. While the folktale does give beavers an enviable degree of badassery, it’s also totally bogus.
- Me gusta
- Comentar
- Compartir
  Facebook
  Twitter
  Copiar enlace
- Reportar