Quackery is Still With Us

At any rate, we associate the term with those who purvey ineffective or cure-all medications, and those who hawk various unproven treatments often using light, electricity, magnets, and other wondrous forces.

In the past, there was often little difference in the outcomes of orthodox and unorthodox treatments. Healers of all stripes used laxatives, emetics, opium, quinine, heavy metals, and an assortment of herbs. The winds of change began to blow in the late 19th century when differences became more apparent. Those winds still gust: Today's fully accepted procedure or prescription could be tomorrow's quackery.

Historically, quacks tended to travel for a variety of reasons, including finding new markets for their wares and avoiding angry dissatisfied customers who might want their money back, or worse. More recently, they advertise in newspapers and magazines, by direct mail, and notably on the internet. Often, transactions still need to be at arm's length.

Advertising was for a time a hallmark of the fringe practitioner or vendor of nostrums, while orthodox physicians scrupulously avoided it. No longer, more's the pity! Another distinction is useful no more.

Using Latin in writing prescriptions was thought by some to be a way of keeping trade secrets, which was of course not true because educated people knew Latin, and others could use translators. Quacks often make a show of the highly secret or mystic nature of their wares.

One of the most famous nostrums was Mariani Wine, introduced in 1863 in France, consisting of coca leaves in Bordeaux wine. It was promoted as a cure or amelioration of most of the ailments known to man. Testimonials came from royalty, popes, artists, musicians, politicians and (would you believe) leaders of the medical profession! Sales finally dropped when laws restricted the use of cocaine. There were imitators, including a rather famous substitution containing syrup and soda water and cocaine, but no wine - named Coca Cola.

In spite of the efforts of organized medicine, government agencies, scientists of various stripes, and other seekers of truth, quackery seems to survive and thrive. This will probably continue so long as orthodox practitioners cannot cure all ailments quickly and cheaply, as long as some illnesses remain self-limited, and as long as the placebo effect remains in force.

We are fortunate to have a wide variety of artifacts now considered quackery on display in the Sierra Sacramento Valley Medical History Museum, such as medicines and methods of treatment including ultraviolet light and electrical devices, to mention a few. The public is welcome to visit and browse, to see a bit of our past, and future.

1. According to the www.quackwatch.org website run by Stephen Barrett, MD, quacksalver means someone who boasts about his salves. Dr. Barrett says, "To avoid semantic problems, quackery could be broadly defined as 'anything involving overpromotion in the field of health.' This definition would include questionable ideas as well as questionable products and services, regardless of the sincerity of their promoters.