9/7/22

7/9/22

This is an old book but a fun one.

It's all about medical fakery, from patent medicines to miracle boxes with electrical currents that fixed what ailed you.

This book recounts all the charlatan and "Professors" who sold snake oil to a believing public from the turn of the (last) century onward. It ends with the founding of the Food and Drug act, which clamped down and saved lives.

Interesting old book if you can find it. ( )

Reviewed August 2007

Took me several months to read as Holbrook gives so much detail that it gets difficult to follow story, he also leaves out the human story in all but a few chapters. Those chapters were a delight to read, "All sold out, Doctor" and "A Wilderness Paracelsus." Holbrook also writes as if the quack he is currently discussing is the most popular one..."of the hundreds...only one became a legend" (p. 63) "No other Southern patent medicine has enjoyed a greater sale than Black Draught" (p. 106) "...achieved more luster and greater notoriety than Hinkley's Bone Liniment." (p. 175) The real hero of the book is Samuel Hopkins Adams who as a reporter for "Colliers" magazine who did tons to pressure the government to enact stricter laws on these quacks. Adams tells Holbrook, "Young feller, the foundation of the original Food and Drug act, and of supplementary legislation is based on the old admonition He that hath eyes to see, let him see the laws were passed to give the public a chance to know, not to save fools fro their folly." (p. 271) The overwhelming theme of this book of how many suckers there are left me feeling sad. People want to believe so bad, that common sense did not work as a deterrents, even when exposed the public wanted more.

17-2007 ( )