Nervous Diseases
Armbrecht’s Coca Wine
Between now and Christmas (and probably beyond) I’ll be taking a different tack with the Quack Doctor and posting more frequently but more briefly, showing just pics of medical adverts, snippets about strange cases, and occasional photos of health-related objects from the past. For the time being I don’t have the personal resources to give … Continue reading
Make-Man Tablets
Do You Want A Vacation? It’s Make-Man Tablets You Need. Fifty Cents Worth of Make-Man Tablets Often Do More For A Man or Woman Than a Three Hundred Dollar Vacation. Do you feel played out—nervous, tired, irritable, don’t sleep good, wake up every morning with a bad taste in your mouth and a dull, hot, … Continue reading
The Cordial Balm of Rakasiri – part 2
For part 1 of this article, click here. There’s also a transcript of an 1818 Rakasiri advert here. In 1828, a ‘nervous young man’ who had wasted more than 10l. on the Cordial Balm of Rakasiri went to a magistrate and succeeded in getting his money back. During the proceedings, the Balm’s proprietors, Charles and … Continue reading
The Cordial Balm of Rakasiri – part 1
Source: The Morning Chronicle, Saturday 12 December 1818. For transcript, click here. On this site I include anything medical or surgical provided it was advertised, so not all the remedies were considered quackery in their time. Some were endorsed and prescribed by reputable doctors, and many were no worse than the orthodox medicines then available. … Continue reading
The Guttae Vitae, or Vegetable Life Drops
Although no proprietor is shown in the following advertisement, the Vegetable Life Drops were one of several cures touted under the name Dr Walter De Roos. De Roos was an enigmatic character and the name was purported to be an alias for one John (or George) Robinson, who might well have bought the business in 1858 from brothers Alfred and Samuel Barker. … Continue reading
Walker's Jesuits Drops
Robert Walker obtained the King’s Royal Letters Patent for his remedy in 1755, and on his death, surgeon Joseph Wessels took it over. The drops were still around, under the name Wessel’s Jesuit Drops as late as the 1870s. In 1843, the Medical Times published a note stating that the Drops were ”a spirituous tincture of … Continue reading
Self-Adjusting Curative and Electric Belt
ELECTRICITY IS LIFE. HEALTH AND MANHOOD RESTORED (WITHOUT MEDICINE.) CURE YOURSELF by the PATENT SELF- ADJUSTING CURATIVE AND ELECTRIC BELT. Sufferers from Nervous debility, Painful Dreams Mental and Physical Depression, Palpitation of the Heart, Noises in the Head and Ears, Indecision, Im- paired sight and memory, Indigestion, Prostration, Lassitude, Depression of … Continue reading
The Vital Regenerator
Balsam of Mecca was a prized substance in Arabian medicine and cosmetics, but it was very difficult to get hold of the real thing in Europe in the 19th century. The true balsam – a resin from the shrub then known as Balsamodendron Opobalsamum (now more commonly Commiphora gileadensis) – was rare, but an inferior form … Continue reading
