The Quack Doctor

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Mr Grimstone's Egyptian mummy pea
A maker of herbal snuff branched out into resurrecting an ancient plant
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Caroline Rance
Rascality in Hot Springs
Quack doctors in a 19th-century spa resort used the devious tactic of 'drumming' to lure in customers
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Caroline Rance
1
Turning heads: the Victorian fashion for mechanical hair-brushing
Hair-brushing by machinery became all the rage in 1860s Britain
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Caroline Rance
Physicians and phantoms
Five medical-themed macabre stories from the 19th century
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Caroline Rance
2

October 2024

An arrow to the skull
The ancient practice of trepanation helped a little girl in 18th-century Edinburgh
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Caroline Rance
The maggotorium cure for tuberculosis
A keen angler stumbled upon a malodorous treatment for consumption in the early 20th century.
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Caroline Rance
From slave to surgeon: the heroic journey of Robert M Johnson
Robert Maxwell Johnson escaped enslavement and travelled to Scotland to become a doctor.
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Caroline Rance
'This comedy of knave and dupe'
A quack doctor in 1870s Hull told some incredible tales about his Indian Remedy.
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Caroline Rance
2

September 2024

‘So worthy of the public notice’: the art of Sarah Biffin
19th-century artist Sarah Biffin, who was born without arms or hands, painted exquisite miniature portraits
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Caroline Rance
New blood for the scalp
In the first decade of the 20th century, vacuum caps raised the hope of raising hair on bald heads.
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Caroline Rance
2
The case of the missing false teeth
In 1902, a man in Ohio paid the ultimate price for losing his dentures
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Caroline Rance
In the doctor's name
A bogus physician fooled the medical authorities by stealing an identity.
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Caroline Rance
© 2024 Caroline Rance
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