Fraudulent or inept medical practice involving untested or refuted treatments, promoted professionally or publicly

concept

Oversize ephemera : Medical songs 3.

Three despairing women, one of whom looks disapprovingly at three quack medicine vendors concocting a mixture; representing Britain's economic depletion and distress at the hands of her politicians. Etching by W. Heath, 1830.

Morison's Pills : the wonderful power of the pills exemplified showing the same person before and after having taken a dose : dedicated with profound respect to all true disciples of Esculapius, more especially to the Royal College of Physicians / by Pilula Rhubarbus, M.D., Professor of Phlebotomy to the Royal Islington abattoirs : sung by Mr. Fitzwilliam.

A well groomed itinerant medicine vendor selling his wares from a smart carriage. Steel engraving by K. Schüler (?) after F. Piloty.

Patients consulting an obese quack. Watercolour painting by T. Rowlandson, 1807.

Advertisement : Here is lately arrived a doctor of physick, who by his long study and experience, both at home and in foreign countries, has acquir'd as learned and safe a method in curing all diseases incident to humane bodies ... as the nature of the distemper will permit.

A salesman in Rome with a snake selling amulets as antidotes or prophylactics against snake-bite to a crowd of people. Etching by B. Pinelli, 1821.

An itinerant vendor advertising his 'sales show' in a square of town. Wood engraving after F. Gilbert.

John Bull as the patient of promotors of competing therapies; representing British parliamentary reform. Aquatint by S. de Wilde, 1809.

A husband and wife ask a quack doctor for advice about health: he suggests substituting himself for the husband in the wife's affections, and she agrees. Engraving by J.J. Balechou, 1743, after E. Jeaurat.

An itinerant medicine vendor and his assistants being pelted off stage with stones from an angry audience. Engraving by C.F. Stoelzel, 1798, after J. Schenau.

People strolling and buying plague antidotes in old St Paul's Cathedral, London. Etching by J. Franklin.

Het Amazonenleger : irreguliere genezeressen in Nederland, 1850-1930 / Willem de Blécourt.

A propósito de "El Baldaet" : curanderismo y asistencia ante la enfermedad / Enrique Perdiguero.

Il medico saltimbanco : vita e avventure di Buonafede Vitali, giramondo instancabile, chimico di talento, istrione di buona creanza / Giorgio Cosmacini.

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Quackery

Images from the collections

Images referencing Quackery

Works from the collections

An itinerant medicine vendor and his assistants being pelted off stage with stones from an angry audience. Engraving by C.F. Stoelzel, 1798, after J. Schenau.

People strolling and buying plague antidotes in old St Paul's Cathedral, London. Etching by J. Franklin.

Het Amazonenleger : irreguliere genezeressen in Nederland, 1850-1930 / Willem de Blécourt.

A propósito de "El Baldaet" : curanderismo y asistencia ante la enfermedad / Enrique Perdiguero.

Il medico saltimbanco : vita e avventure di Buonafede Vitali, giramondo instancabile, chimico di talento, istrione di buona creanza / Giorgio Cosmacini.

Quackery

Images from the collections

Images referencing Quackery

Works from the collections

An itinerant medicine vendor and his assistants being pelted off stage with stones from an angry audience. Engraving by C.F. Stoelzel, 1798, after J. Schenau.

People strolling and buying plague antidotes in old St Paul's Cathedral, London. Etching by J. Franklin.

Het Amazonenleger : irreguliere genezeressen in Nederland, 1850-1930 / Willem de Blécourt.

A propósito de "El Baldaet" : curanderismo y asistencia ante la enfermedad / Enrique Perdiguero.

Il medico saltimbanco : vita e avventure di Buonafede Vitali, giramondo instancabile, chimico di talento, istrione di buona creanza / Giorgio Cosmacini.

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