If you’ve been watching Netflix’s Apple Cider Vinegar, you may have noticed terms like ‘quack,’ ‘quack cure,’ and ‘quack doctor’ popping up more and more.
Starring Kaitlyn Dever, the series follows the true story of Belle Gibson, an Instagram wellness guru who falsely claimed to cure her terminal brain cancer with diet, alternative treatments, and even coffee enemas. But what exactly is a quack?
Hint: It’s definitely not a duck!
The Definition of a Quack
A quack is a person who dishonestly claims to have medical knowledge or skills, often promoting false and unproven medical treatments or schemes for a profit.
The term derives from the 16th century Dutch term Quacksalver. This loosely translates to someone who sold potions (salves) to the public with a fast and noisy sales pitch that sounded like a quacking duck.
The Italians also had their own word for quack, ciarlatano. This developed into the more recognisable English word, charlatan.
What would a Quack Doctor do?
Traditional quack doctors used convoluted explanations to sound convincing, making it difficult for everyday people to see through their fraud. And if a ‘doctor’ claimed to have a cure for multiple ailments at once… well, that’s a big red flag.
One of the hallmarks of a quack cure would be a cure-all medicine, pill, tonic, or balm, immediately curing everything, from fatigue to cancer with a 100% success rate.
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!
The History of Quackery
In the 18th and 19th centuries, societal shifts and medical advancements gave rise to an increase in medical diagnoses for ailments like ‘weak nerves’ and ‘hysteria’. These conditions were commonly diagnosed throughout the Georgian period, especially amongst women.
The wealthy had the luxury of using more sophisticated phony treatments. Hypnosis, electrotherapy, and rest cures were readily available, but for ordinary folks? They had to make do with whatever remedies the market had to offer. And there were plenty of them.
The 19th century saw an explosion of so-called nerve tonics and pills marketed as cures for everything from insomnia to melancholy. These remedies were often nothing more than concoctions designed to relieve symptoms temporarily.
Dr. John Hooper’s Female Pills
Advertised in the 1750s as the ‘best medicine ever discovered for young women,’ these pills were supposedly a cure for hysteria and other afflictions of the so-called fairer sex.
They contained addictive substances like strychnine, morphine, lithium salts and even cocaine. Whilst they provided some temporary pain relief, it’s no surprise they did more harm than good!
Tobacco Enemas
Have you ever heard the phrase, ‘blowing smoke up your arse’? Well, look no further! And please, do not try this at home.
This device used to ‘restore the apparently drowned’. It was thought to warm the victim’s insides and stimulate respiration.
One of its first documented uses was on an allegedly drowned woman in 1746. A passing sailor told her husband tobacco smoke would help. The husband borrowed the sailor’s pipe, inserted it and blew hard, miraculously reviving her. Or so the story goes!
They were eventually installed these kits at various points along the River Thames for public use, offering a cash prize to anyone who could prove that they had successfully resuscitated someone.
Soon, tobacco enemas were taking the late 18th and early 19th centuries by storm. Doctors were using them to treat headaches, abdominal cramps, typhoid fever and even cholera. You can see a complete resuscitation device, with accessories, behind one of the yellow doors in our ‘Who Cares?’ gallery.
Baldwin’s Nerve Tonic Pills
Poster advertising Baldwin’s Nerve tonic pills (Thackray Collection: 2023.0070).
Marketed as a cure for nervousness, insomnia, headaches, and even sciatica, these pills were a common remedy for those seeking to address ‘nervous’ ailments. However, their dodgy ingredients list offered little more than a placebo effect.
Quackery at Thackray
Looking to learn more?