The history of quackery. Kang L., Pedersen N.

“The History of Charlatanism” by Dr. Medicine Lydia Kang and journalist Nate Pedersen is a story of the worst treatment methods that have been practiced by doctors, healers and scammers from antiquity to the present day. Today, many of these methods seem incredible to us: imagine the times when the doctors prescribed opium in an infant crying, mercury with yellow fever and cauterization with hot iron as a remedy for love torments.

These stories about a strange and frankly dangerous treatment, illustrated by ancient engravings, photographs and advertising sheets, are not only an important evidence of a person’s insurmountable craving for life, but also the opportunity to think that charlatanism is not limited to the past. After all, someday, about our modern ways to stay healthy, beautiful and young, it may also find out that they are meaningless or dangerous.