quackery
quackery, the characteristic practice of quacks or charlatans, who pretend to knowledge and skill that they do not possess, particularly in medicine. The quack makes exaggerated claims about his or her ability to heal disease, generally for financial gain.
The conditions usually treated by quacks are those for which specific methods of treatment have not yet been developed; those particularly feared, such as cancer, sexually transmitted diseases, and, in the past, tuberculosis; those with frequent remissions and recurrences, such as arthritis, neuritis, and migraine; and mental disorders. People yield to quackery in times of great stress, pain, or sorrow. In the absence of exact knowledge, and sometimes even in its presence in the face of insurmountable difficulties, the credulous person craves a miracle and is ready to be overwhelmed by the personality and the claims of the charlatan.
The typical quack may be a man or a woman and is likely to be striking in appearance and personality. In the past, those believed to possess special powers in healing disease included malformed persons, such as hunchbacks; rulers, such as high priests and kings; mystics; and mentally disturbed persons. The modern charlatan often boasts an alphabetical appendage, indicating the possession of academic degrees that were not conferred by any recognized scientific organization or university. The charlatan is aided by the reluctance of “patients” to acknowledge the inefficacy of purported cures and by the magnification of apparent successes. Research into psychosomatic disorders has helped to explain some of the healings recorded by quacks.
Techniques of quacks
Whenever a new discovery is made in any field of science, the charlatan may take advantage of public interest and lack of information to utilize it with exaggerated claims. Lack of general knowledge tends to encourage occultism, and the characteristic claim of the quack is the possession of a formula, method, device, or product unknown to other physicians or scientists. At the time of the American Revolution, for example, a quack named Elisha Perkins (1741–99), aware of public interest in the recently discovered electricity, invented “metallic tractors” to draw disease out of the body. These were two rods of brass and iron, about three inches (less than eight centimetres) long, one of copper, zinc, and gold, the other of iron with some other metals. The rods cost one shilling to manufacture and sold for $5.00. James Graham (1745–94) in England set up a temple of healing in which he burlesqued the principle of electricity, promising cures and rejuvenation.
Knowledge of powerful drug substances derived from plants (digitalis, belladonna, cascara sagrada, quinine, and opium poppy) led to the development of nostrums that were exploited with false, misleading, or exaggerated claims to cure such diseases as tuberculosis, syphilis, cancer, kidney diseases, and gynecological, digestive, and rheumatic disorders. Sometimes the quack or purveyor of nostrums did not trouble to include a potent drug but merely used any bitter-tasting dark herb or vegetable with common salt or sulfur. Toward the end of the 19th century, alcohol was used as a solvent, and it yielded its typical effects to the satisfaction of the users. Many modern nostrums depend principally on aspirin.
With the discovery of radium, claims were made for mixtures said to contain this substance. In a few instances some radium actually was included, and users died years later from the effects of radium on the body. Radium was said to be incorporated in magical magnetic belts, and radium plasters with infinitesimal amounts of radioactivity were purveyed.
Increasing knowledge of the glands of internal secretion gave rise to preparations for rejuvenation, beautification, and sexual power. Vitamins have been incorporated in preparations for growing hair or preventing grayness, without any real evidence that they could be helpful. Indeed, in the realm of cosmetology, quackery and nostrums seem destined forever to reap a pecuniary harvest. At times, homeopathy, recital of ritualistic codes, manipulation of bones, muscles, and tendons, complicated machines of no particular merit, lights (plain and coloured), static electric currents, and even radioactivity have been vaunted as useful in the control of disease and the promotion of health.
With the development of techniques for advertising and promotion, quacks thrived until legislative controls were brought into action. As early as 1843, a leader in advertising said that pain or the fear of pain attracted the greatest interest in humankind and that for this reason medical advertising took most of the space available in the press. Vanity had the next strongest appeal. Education of the public in physiology, anatomy, and hygiene have not served to dispel gullibility.
Quack advertising still relies on blatant exaggeration, use of unusual terms (such as “dyskinesia” for constipation), creation of fear, and a promise of secrecy and financial saving (actually, the employment of nostrums and quackery invariably results in greatly increased and prolonged expense). With the coming of radio, some quacks secured radio stations to sell promised cures, and television has also been so employed. The spread of the Internet offered a vast array of new opportunities for quacks: spam provided a vehicle for them to solicit their wares at almost no cost, and law enforcement agencies could do little to combat outrageous claims from individuals on the other side of the globe. As with earlier forms of quack advertising, education was virtually the only effective means to combat online quackery.