The Quack Doctor

The pic is a bit small so I’ve transcribed the text anyway, but you can probably get the idea how this contraption was worn. The white circular bit in the centre of the picture was a smooth piece of ivory designed to fit where the sun don’t shine.

The inventor, Benjamin Atkinson, manufactured a variety of surgical mechanisms, such as prosthetic limbs and braces for curvature of the spine. Some of his inventions, including the Rectum Supporter (also known as the Anal Truss) went on display in the Great Exhibition of 1851 – presumably not modelled by someone, but who knows? It was mainly advertised in the medical press (e.g. the Medical Times and The Lancet) rather than direct to punters.

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Piles and Prolapsus Ani.—The most
eminent of the Medical Profession, and thousands of persons afflicted
with the above complaints, can testify to
the advantage of ATKINSON’S  REGIS-
TERED RECTUM SUPPORTER in the
curative treatment of the Piles and Prolapsus
Ani during the last nine years. It never
fails to give immediate relief, and can be
worn under all circumstances. Price 42s.,
sent free on receipt of P.O. order, with cir-
cumference of body below the waist, to B. F.
Atkinson, 3, Hemming’s-row, Charing-crs.

Source: The Medical Times and Gazette, August 22 1863

The Aperitive Vase, a cure for constipation, is somewhat coyly advertised here, but adverts from earlier in the 1840s left less to the imagination:

The apparatus is a fountain in miniature, so small that when filled it may be concealed in the pocket until it can be used conveniently; when, by an hydraulic double-action within it, the water which it contains is propelled into the bowels, and instantly procures the desired relief, as effectively as a dose of opening medicine. The Fountain may be used by the most nervous lady without the knowledge or aid of any second person. (The Era, Aug 13 1843)

 Image: Detail from Réaction. Distraction. Précipitation by Charles Philipon, 1850s. Courtesy of the US National Library of Medicine.      

      T H E   U S E   O F   W A T E R  as  an  aperient  is  neither
distasteful  nor  injurious  as  opening  medicines  are:  its  operation
is instantaneous, and without the slightest  uneasiness;  consequently
it is found to be a remedy  preferable  to  every  other  for  Indigestion,
Costiveness, Bile,  &c.  But  those  who  desire  to  relieve  effectually
the stomach and bowels by  this  natural  physic,  and  to  resort  to  it
comfortably, must apply it  with  the  APERITIVE  VASE,  constructed
for invalids and ladies, and sold only at Scott and Llewelyn’s  Medical
Repository,  369,  Strand,   the  third  house  from  Exeter  Hall.  Also,
SONIFERS, by which a deaf person may magnify voices to the  pitch
at which he hears distinctly. Descriptions sent post free, on receipt of
two letter stamps.

Source: The Daily News (London) Saturday 31 January 1846

Dr Scott and a business associate, Mr Pine, revealed the extent of their medical knowledge in 1844 when a 5-year-old boy was rushed to their premises after falling into the river near Waterloo Bridge. According to the inquest report in the Medical Times (6 July 1844), Scott ‘looked at the child, and exclaimed— “Be off with you—take it to Charing Cross Hospital.”‘ The rescuers set off the for the hospital but the child died on the way.

 Now giving due force to these circumstances, said the Medical Times in reference to Scott’s advertisements, but more especially to the singular rejection of this poor child for treatment, and supposing for a moment that Dr. Scott, like thousands of others, really has no other title to doctorship but his own sovereign will, what a significant instance we have before us of the mischief of empirical pretensions.

Today’s advert is rather long. The Mr Abernethy referred to was the eminent surgeon John Abernethy (1764-1831), pictured right. He wrote about piles in his Surgical Observations (1804-06), a work that according to his biographer, George MacIlwain, was known as “the My-Book”  because “he not unfrequently recommended his patients” to read it.

Although Abernethy advised patients with a mild case of piles to “anoint the protruded parts with ointment, and carefully replace them above the gripe of the sphincter,” he did not give a recipe for any particular ointment and generally advocated a more aggressive approach to treatment. “The piles”, he wrote ”should be taken hold of by a double hook, of a breadth corresponding to the length of the pile, and when drawn upwards from the bowel, it may be removed by a pair of scissars.”

The ointment began to be advertised more than a decade after Abernethy’s death, and it seems likely that the mysterious “Proprietor” appropriated his good name to make the product sound reputable.

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AN EFFECTUAL CURE FOR PILES, FISTULAS, &c.
_________

ABERNETHY’S PILE OINTMENT

WHAT a painful and noxious disease is the Piles! and comparatively how few of the afflicted have been permanently cured by ordinary appeals to Medical skill! This, no doubt, arises from the use of powerful aperients too frequently administered by the Profession; indeed, strong internal medicine should always be avoided in all cases of this complaint. The Proprietor of the above Ointment, after years of acute suffering, placed himself under the treatment of that eminent surgeon, Mr. Abernethy, was by him restored to perfect health, and has enjoyed it ever since without the slightest return of the Disorder, over a period of fifteen years, during which time the same Abernethian Prescription has been the means of healing a vast number of desperate cases, both in and out of the Proprietor’s circles of friends, most of which cases had been under medical care, and some of them for a very considerable time. Abernethy’s Pile Ointment was introduced to the Public by the desire of many who had been perfectly healed by its application, and since its introduction, the fame of this ointment has spread far and wide; even the Medical Profession, always slow and unwilling to acknowledge the virtues of any medicine not prepared by themselves, do now freely and frankly admit that Abernethy’s Pile Ointment, is not not only a valuable preparation, but a never-failing remedy in every stage and variety of that appalling malady.
    Sufferers from the Piles will not repent giving the Ointment a trial. Multitudes of cases of its efficacy might be produced, if the nature of the complaint did not render those who have been cured, unwilling to publish their names.
    Sold in covered pots, at 4s. 6d., or the quantity of three 4s. 6d. pots in one for 11s., with full directions for use, by C. KING (Agent to the Proprietor), No. 34, Napier-street, Hoxton New Town, London, where also can be procured every Patent Medicine of repute, direct from the original makers, with an allowance on taking six at a time.
    *** Be sure to ask for ‘ABERNETHY’S PILE OINTMENT.’ The public are requested to be on their guard against noxious compositions, sold at low prices, and to observe that none can possibly be genuine, unless the name of KING is printed on the Government Stamp affixed to each pot, 4s. 6d., which is the lowest price the proprietor is enabled to sell it at, owing to the great expense of the ingredients.

Source: The Northern Star and National Trades’ Journal, Saturday 4th March, 1848.