About this item
An entertaining introduction to the quacks, snake-oil salesmen, and charlatans, who often had a point Despite rampant scientific innovation in nineteenth-century America, traditional medicine still adhered to ancient healing methods, subjecting patients to bleeding, blistering, and induced vomiting and sweating. Facing such horrors, many patients ran with open arms to burgeoning practices that promised new ways to cure their ills. Hydropaths offered cures using "healing waters" and tight wet-sheet wraps. Phineas Parkhurst Quimby experimented with magnets and tried to replace "bad," diseased thoughts with "good," healthy thoughts, while Daniel David Palmer reportedly restored a man's hearing by knocking on his vertebrae.
About the Author
Erika Janik is the award-winning author of Odd Wisconsin, A Short History of Wisconsin, Madison: A History of a Model City, Apple: A Global History, and Marketplace of the Marvelous: The Strange Origins of Modern Medicine (Beacon Press, Jan. 2014) . She is the recipient of a 2011 Wisconsin Historical Society Award of Merit for History Writing, 2009 North American Travel Journalists Association award for historical travel writing as well as the 2007 William B. Hesseltine Award. Her work has appeared in many publications, including Smithsonian.com, Mental Floss, The Onion, MyMidwest, Wisconsin Trails magazine, On Wisconsin, and the Wisconsin Magazine of History, as well as on Wisconsin Public Radio. Originally from Redmond, Washington, she now knows more about Wisconsin than she ever thought possible. In her spare time, she's the producer and editor of "Wisconsin Life" at Wisconsin Public Radio.
