The Quack Doctor

The Quack Doctor

Home
Notes
Archive
About
'An innocent Welshman, and not an American'
A practitioner in 1860s Wales tried to convince patients that their troubles were down to witchcraft.
 • 
Caroline Rance
A thorn in the flesh
A Victorian doctor's own mysterious symptoms puzzled his eminent friends
 • 
Caroline Rance
1
Tin tube trickery: a clairvoyant’s love scam
‘Professor Clyde Dupree’ used a fortune-telling trick to rob people looking for love.
 • 
Caroline Rance
A matter of knife and death
Between 1799 and 1805, sailor John Cummings swallowed dozens of pocket-knives.
 • 
Caroline Rance
1

January 2025

Becoming like the dainty girl
In Edwardian London, a new weight-loss product used marketing messages that remain familiar today.
 • 
Caroline Rance
The melancholy delusion of the Stewart sisters
In 1860s Glasgow, Marion and Catherine Stewart withdrew from all contact with the outside world.
 • 
Caroline Rance
6
Dr Kane's radium swindle
Harry Hubbell Kane conned $10,000 out of a patient desperate for a radioactive cure.
 • 
Caroline Rance
'A diabolical concoction': Dr Buckland's Scotch Oats Essence
Dr H H Kane claimed he could cure opium addiction with a humble tincture of oats.
 • 
Caroline Rance

December 2024

'Set the spirit alight': Victorian festive science
Scientific experiments of a more or less dangerous character provided Christmas entertainment in the Victorian parlour
 • 
Caroline Rance
The tooth, the whole tooth … and the jawbone too
18th-century dentist Thomas Berdmore revealed the agonies his patients endured before, during and after treatment.
 • 
Caroline Rance
2
'Eager to be up and doing': the highs and lows of coca wine
Victorian nervine drinks contained a potent combination of alcohol and cocaine.
 • 
Caroline Rance

November 2024

© 2025 Caroline Rance
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture