books

Avoiding the trickcyclist and nutpicker: First World War home remedies and miracle cures

I’m delighted to welcome author Suzie Grogan to The Quack Doctor. Suzie’s latest book, Shell Shocked Britain: The First World War’s Legacy for Britain’s Mental Health was published in October 2014. In this guest post, she explores some of the commercial remedies that claimed to tackle the psychological effects of war.   In the pre-welfare state world […]

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‘A Damnable Villain’ part 2 – a free pony for your wife!

In the second part of his guest article, Robert K. Waits – author of The Medical Electricians – reveals Byron H Robb’s change of career from electro-magnetic entrepreneur to Texas rancher. Read Part 1 here.   . Even as a Farmington, Ohio, teenager in 1854, Robb was honing his skill as a mail-order fraudster, advertising […]

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Robb Electromagnetic brush

‘A Damnable Villain’ – Byron H. Robb and the Electro-Magnetic Brush Co.

The Quack Doctor is delighted to welcome guest blogger Robert K. Waits, author of The Medical Electricians: George A. Scott and His Victorian Cohorts in Quackery. In this two-part article, Robert discusses the colourful career of 19th-century fraudster Byron H Robb. . In 1878 George Augustus Scott gained fame in London and New York for […]

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Madame Fox's Life for the Hair

Madame Fox’s Life for the Hair

ADvent Calendar Day 13 ‘Old things are passed away; behold all things are become new’. The advertisers of Madame Fox’s Life for the Hair quoted from 2 Corinthians as they sought to usher in ‘a new epoch in the treatment of the hair and scalp.‘ The product was advertised in Britain in the 1870s and 80s. […]

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