The Quack Doctor

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Becoming like the dainty girl
In Edwardian London, a new weight-loss product used marketing messages that remain familiar today.
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Caroline Rance
The melancholy delusion of the Stewart sisters
In 1860s Glasgow, Marion and Catherine Stewart withdrew from all contact with the outside world.
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Caroline Rance
4
Dr Kane's radium swindle
Harry Hubbell Kane conned $10,000 out of a patient desperate for a radioactive cure.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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Caroline Rance

November 2024

Josephine Girardelli, the incombustible lady
'The celebrated fire-proof female' entertained Regency audiences with feats of heat resistance
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Caroline Rance
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
© 2025 Caroline Rance
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