ILLUSTRATIONS 
OF THE 
LITERATURE OF QUACKERY. 
J*fENRY pIBBONS)/M. p. 
[Read before the California State Medical Society at the Annual Meeting, April 15, 1874.] 
That “people like to be humbugged ” is a saying more 
practical than elegant ; and it is exemplified, more than in 
any other way, in the universal currency given to impostors 
and impostures that concern the public health. Physicians 
are often censured for not taking more pains to separate the 
false from the true, the spurious from the genuine, in medi- 
cine and medical'practice, so that people may discriminate 
between them. If the discrimination were made, it is not 
certain that the popular current would be turned in the right 
channel. There is no doubt that many persons would be 
more attracted, as indeed they are already, by the meretri- 
cious trappings of charlatanry than by the more sober claims 
of science and truth. Whether for good or for evil, I pro- 
pose, on the present occasion, to give utterance to some 
thoughts and observations bearing on this subject. 
A large proportion of the patent and secret medicines with 
which simple-minded people delight to experiment on their 
organs, have been stolen from the regular profession. A pa- 
tient who believes that he has been cured by a certain pre- 
scription, grows enthusiastic in favor of the remedy, and 
recommends it indiscriminately. What multitudes of men 
and women will advise medicines, and what multitudes will 2 
Pacific Medical and Surgical Journal. 
[JtfMEJ, 
swallow them, on this primitive logic ! It reminds one of 
the saying of Franklin, that when he considered to what bad 
uses human reason is often applied, he was ready to wish 
that Providence had bestowed on man a sensible instinct in 
its stead. Popular therapeutics seldom rise above the stand- 
ard of the historic quack, who discovered by experience that 
a salt herring would cure a Scotchman of a fever, but would 
kill a Frenchman. 
With better judgment and better opportunities,apothecaries 
sometimes prostitute their office and beget nostrums. Be- 
hind the counter, handling prescriptions, they have frequent 
means of ascertaining the effects of certain agents or com- 
binations on certain diseases. Appropriating to their own 
illegitimate purposes the knowledge thus procured through 
the patients of the medical man who confides to them his 
prescriptions, they add to the already prolific spawn of secret 
cure-alls. Thus they become not only prescribers but quacks 
and nostrum-mongers. At this moment the street cars of 
San Francisco exhibit posters offering a thousand dollars 
reward for a case of whooping cough which cannot be cured 
by a compound prepared by one of our apothecaries. 
The only female apothecary I ever knew flourished in my 
native town in the State of Delaware, when I was a lad. She 
was well educated for that day, and she educated herself still 
further by gathering from her customers all the information 
she should obtain as to the disease which the prescriptions 
they brought to her were designed for, and the effects. This 
information she recorded in a book kept for the purpose. Her 
ingenuity and industry were rewarded by a valuable clinical 
record, more complete and more practical, most likely, than 
any which were kept by the doctors who wrote the prescrip- 
tions. In this way she learned the art of prescribing. It so 
happened that my father, who was a physician, was in the 
habit of prescribing for the flatulent colic of infants a mix- 
ture containing oil of anise, with magnesia or chalk. The 
female apothecary soon discovered the value of the prepara- 
tion, and forthwith engaged in the manufacture and sale of it 1874.] 
/1lustrations of the Literature of Quackery. 
3 
on her own account, announcing it as “ Dr. Gibbons's Colic 
Drops." My father detested quackery in all its phases, and I 
well remember his consternation when he discovered that his 
prescription had been converted into a nostrum and his name 
identified writh it in this manner. 
I may remark in passing that “Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing 
Syrup" owes much of its virtue to oil of anise, and that it is 
essentially a mixture of this oil with morphia—the latter in 
variable proportions, but in quantity sufficient to have proved 
fatal in a number of well-attested cases. In fact “ Mrs. 
Winslow’s Soothing Syrup ” is one of the most dangerous 
nostrums in the market ; nevertheless it is sold by apothe- 
caries in general, and by some even placarded conspicuously 
in their windows ! 
The senior members of the profession will recollect a long 
string of “ panaceas,” “ catholicons, ” pulmonic balsams, and 
so forth, commencing with “ Swaim’s Panacea,” about half a 
century ago. An ignorant book-binder in New York, who 
could not even write his name, contracted a disreputable 
disease, for which he was treated by Dr. Quackenboss, then 
an old practitioner in that city. He was cured by the aid of 
a preparation of sarsaparilla, similar to the French “ Sirop 
de Cumnier," the formula for which the doctor kindly gave to 
his patient, that he might save expense by manufacturing it 
for himself. Swaim removed to Philadelphia, and conceived 
the idea of turning his personal experience to profit. He 
made a quantity of the syrup and took it to the Pennsylvania 
Hospital, and asked permission to give it to some of the pa- 
tients. The patients appeared to be benefitted, and Swaim 
then requested Professors Chapman and Gibson, visiting 
physician and surgeon of the Hospital, to give their esti- 
mate of it in writing. This they did thoughtlessly, after 
being apprized of the ingredients. He procured a similar 
certificate from Dr. Dewees, and also from Mott the eminent 
New York surgeon. Shortly afterwards “ Sioaim's Panacea" 
came out in the newspapers in flaring capitals, with the cer- 
tificates of the four distinguished professors, which also 4 
Pacific Medical and Surgical Journal. 
June, 
headed a pamphlet filled with certificates of wonderful cures 
performed by it. At once the nostrum was received into 
popular favor, and the sales of it soon became enormous. It 
was even exported in large quantities to the West Indies, 
South America and Europe. Swaim, who had learned to 
write his name in order to affix it to his labels, made a splen- 
did fortune, and built himself a palatial residence on Chest- 
nut Street. Both he and his distinguished endorsers have 
gone to their long rest—he exultant with triumph, the pro- 
fessors annoyed to the last by chagrin. 
When I was a student, and a junior member of the Phila- 
delphia Medical Society, a committee of that Society pre- 
pared and published an account of the quack medicines then 
in vogue. An analysis of Swaim’s Panacea showed the 
presence of corrosive sublimate. About the same time a 
child died soon after taking a dose of “Panacea,”apparently 
from poisoning. It was in evidence that Swaim had been in 
the practice of obtaining from an apothecary a large number 
of powders of corrosive sublimate, and the inference was that 
they were added to the bottles of medicine, and that the child 
who had taken the first dose from a bottle had swallowed the 
quantity intended for the whole bottle. These things having 
been made public, Swaim went before a notary and swore 
that his medicine contained no mercury, and appended the 
declaration to his labels from that time onward. 
Swaim had a son who was my classmate in the dissecting 
room. He was a youth of good parts and fond of study. 
Whether he graduated or not, I am not informed. But his 
father’s design in giving him a medical education was to 
qualify him for greater efficiency in the panacea trade. The 
young man was accordingly diverted from the honorable pur- 
suit of medical science, and buried ignominiously in the 
cess-pool of quackery. 
Some thirty years ago there lived in the southern part of 
New Jersey a mechanic or laboring man who suffered long 
from chronic diarrhea. He was cured at last by a prescrip- 
tion obtained from a physician residing, I think, at Port 1874.] 
Illustrations of the Literature of Quackery. 
5 
Elizabeth. He removed to Philadelphia and transformed 
himself into a doctor more promptly and more economically 
even than doctors are wont to b'e made by the bastard manu- 
factory of the man called Dr. Buchanan. And so “Dr. 
Jayne” and his “Carminative Balsam” had their birth. By 
the foolishness of advertising, the Carminative Balsam became 
a success. The name of Jayne acquired value as capital in 
trade, and was used to give currenc}1, to vermifuges, expec- 
torants, and other preparations. And thus did the obscure 
and ignorant farm-hand become a doctor and a millionaire, 
not so much by his brains as by the accident of a bowel 
complaint. 
If the charlatan be an ignoramus, he must employ some 
one to run the literary department— to write up advertise- 
ments and certificates of cure. The imagination of an adroit 
liar is capable of supplying the certificates. These require 
a professional varnish, however, and for this purpose it is 
customary to hire some thread-bare doctor—some child of 
genius and misfortune who has fallen by the wayside in the 
battle of life, and who sells his soul to save his body from 
starvation. 
The “natural bone-setters” are a curious variety of the 
human race. They possess by nature the gift of bone-setting, 
handed down from the seventh son of the seventh son, or 
some equally valid inheritance. It was my good fortune, just 
after taking my degree in medicine, to fall in with “Doctor 
Sweet,’ the great natural bone-setter of that period, and to 
enjoy a half day’s clinic at his elbow. He had come all the 
way from Connecticut or New York, at the solicitation of 
some individuals of easy faith, to manipulate a lot of cripples 
in my native town ; and I was glad of the opportunity to ac- 
company him and witness his performances. 
The story was that Sweet, when a boy, developed a remark- 
able passion for twisting and manipulating the joints of 
domestic animals, and that he became expert in dislocating 
and replacing them. All the fowls, cats, dogs and pigs on 
his father’s farm were the subjects of his daily experiment- 6 
Pacific Medical and Surgical Journal. 
[June, 
ation—that is to say, of the exercise of his special “gift.” 
With this education and experience he turned his attention 
to the halt and lame of his own species, just as the Preissnitz 
inn-keeper, a few years later, after long training in the curing 
of sick horses, transferred his treatment to men and founded 
Hydropathy. In every trouble about the joints, Sweet per- 
ceived or imagined displacement of the bones. His treat- 
ment consisted essentially in manipulation, which was some- 
times preceded by frictions with a stimulating liniment. He 
would undertake any thing, from a gouty toe to a carious 
hip ; knowing that success in one case out of fifty would es- 
tablish and sustain his reputation. Here is the difference 
between the physician and the charlatan—the former being 
judged by his failures, the latter by his successes. 
One of the patients on whom I saw him operate was an 
Irish gentleman, with sub-acute rheumatism of one arm, 
every joint from the shoulder to the extremities of the fingers 
being stiffened and painfully sensitive. He began with the 
shoulder, twisting and turning the inflamed joint forcibly in 
all directions, remarking —“I will soon fix it for you.” 
“Doctor,” I inquired, “do you consider that joint dis- 
located?” 
“No, it is shot,” was the answer. 
“You mean it is out of joint?” 
“No, I mean no such thing. It is shot.” 
“Well, you mean to say the bones are not exactly in 
place.” 
“I mean just what I say, the jynt is shot.” 
And that was the only idea of his pathology that I could 
gather. From the shoulder he proceeded downwards, using 
the same forcible movements with each joint. Reaching the 
fingers, he planted his thumb in the palmar surface of each 
and every articulation and bent the joint with violence, the 
poor patient roaring with agony at each successive operation 
and begging piteously that the delicate process be suspended 
long enough for him to swallow a glass of brandy. It is 
needless to say that injury, not benefit, followed such treat- 
ment. 1874. 
/Uustratlons of the Literature of Quackery. 
7 
Sweet was extremely ignorant, and purposely so. He 
knew that success in a man of no education would dazzle the 
vulgar ; and he knew also that the term vulgar, in that appli- 
cation of it, includes people generally. He intended that 
his “ gift ” should sparkle like a diamond in a dung-hill. His 
pathology was embraced in the one word, “ shot and his 
therapeutics in the one word “fix.” He often fixed a greater 
number of bones than are counted in osteology. A medical 
student who was present on the occasion referred to, now 
Dr. R. It. Porter, of Delaware, asked him if he had ever ex- 
amined a skeleton. He did not know the meaning of the 
word, but exclaimed, after a repetition of the inquiry, “Oh! 
you mean an anotomy. I seen one once but did not examine 
it. I had no occasion to do so. I don’t want to know any 
thing more about the bones. It might interfere with my 
gift.” 
Old Californians will remember “Doctor Young,” the 
pioneer quack of the Pacific Coast. He was an upholsterer 
and nothing more, until his sudden transformation into a 
doctor, which required but a single night. He flashed into 
fame and into business through the institution which gradu- 
ates nearly all the quacks in the world—the newspaper press. 
There was a vein of honest}’ in Young’s character. Realiz- 
ing his own inability to treat disease, he prescribed by proxy. 
Of this I was first apprised by the following incident. Being 
called in consultation in the case of a sick child, late in the 
evening, it became necessary to appoint an hour for another 
meeting with the attending physician on the day following. 
That gentleman was a well educated medical man, but unfor- 
tunately he had been ensnared and shorn of his locks by the 
Circe' of our profession. He could meet me only before 
eight in the morning and after six in the evening. I was 
much surprised by this announcement, until he explained 
the reason. “I am ashamed to own it,” said he, “but I am 
in the service of Dr. Young. I have a family and I could not 
see them starve. My professional pride is humbled by the 
position, but the case is one of necessity. Young never pre- Pacific Medical and Surgical Journal. 
[June, 
8 
scribes for his patients. He sits at the desk in the reception 
room and arranges and receives the fees, and then refers 
them to me, in the private office. I pass for the doctor, and 
Young for my clerk. He pays me $250 a month, and my 
time is his exclusively from 8 A. m. till 6 p. m.” 
Both these individuals have long since gone to their 
graves. But “Doctor Young’s Institute” still lives, and his 
name is still employed to attract persons who are fond of 
certain flavors. 
Twenty years ago there was a shop-boy in a dispensary in 
this city, who performed the duties of his office for the 
moderate compensation of $40 a month. He was of European 
birth, well educated and of pleasant manners; attentive to 
business and economical. He withdrew amicably from the 
service of his employer, and investing his savings in the 
press, he came forth one morning as a newspaper graduate, 
a full-fledged physician and surgeon, of infinite celebrity and 
experience in Europe. He was the most adroit and gentle- 
manly of our California charlatans, and perhaps the best 
qualified and the most successful. Some time after his debut 
he announced himself as a graduate of a regular Philadelphia 
school. Regarding this as impossible, I wrote to the dean of 
the school for information, and learned that it wras really so, 
and that he had obtained an ad eundem degree by exhibiting 
testimonials of the highest order from medical schools in 
Europe. The mystery was subsequently explained by the 
discovery that he had a brother in Philadelphia whose testi- 
monials he had borrowed and whose character he had as- 
sumed. His career was brilliant and lucrative. In the list 
of treasure shipments published at the departure of the 
steamers, his name always appeared as a large shipper. It 
was ascertained, however, that he was in the practice of pay- 
ing other shippers to enter their remittances in his name. 
Thus “by hook and by crook” did he accumulate a for- 
tune sufficient to warrant him in retiring from business. 
Shaking from his feet the dust of quackery, he mounted to a 
respectable position in society, and now enjoys his oiium Illustrations of the TAterature of Quackery. 
1874.] 
9 
cum dicjnitate, unmoved by needless contemplation of tbe 
hole of the pit from whence he was digged. 
A smart young man with a Hibernian name, made a snug 
little sum of money, nearly twenty years ago, as a newspaper 
carrier in this city. His occupation taught him how doctors 
might be made by an instantaneous process ; and he was car- 
ried by his newspapers into the doctorate in a single night, 
and became possessed of extensive knowledge and experience 
in medicine, without reading, study or practice. 
In former years a man named Jones held forth in Wash- 
ington Street, as the author and vendor of a “ Lucina Cor- 
dial,” which would strengthen the nerves, impart sexual vigor 
and cure all irregularities of females. This man sent for me 
to prescribe for his wife. Her case, as represented both by 
her and by himself, was so exactly that for which the “Cor- 
dial ” was advertised as an infallible cure, that I could not 
avoid asking him if he had tried it on her. He answered, 
with a significant movement of one eye, “I don’t give that in 
my own family.” 
In California, as in all other parts of the world, there are 
“Worm Doctors.” Some man of stomach becomes a victim 
of parasites, and is made acquainted through a medical pre- 
scription with the virtues of Male Fern—the insecticide 
mostly employed by these worm-killers. Forthwith he gathers 
up all the tape-worms and other eutozoic prodigies which cats, 
dogs and human beings can supply, displays them in his win- 
dow, and talks and writes tape-worm, knowing that a large 
percentage of men and women who see and read will be con- 
verted and will come for his medicines. On this hobby has 
many a perfect ignoramus crawled into celebrity and afflu- 
ence. 
There is an old story of twro fellows who embarked in a 
speculation in itch-ointment. One of them had the disease, 
and traveled through the country shaking hands most affec- 
tionately with every body. The other, who had the ointment, 
followed in a week or two selling the cure. A game some- 
thing like this belongs to the art of quackery. The first step 10 
Pacific Medical and Surgical Journal. 
[June, 
is to make patients, and this can be done by getting people 
to read about disease. Pamphlets, almanacs, newspapers, 
distribute the infection. It requires but little knowledge of 
human nature to discover that reading of diseases causes per- 
sons to fancy themselves sick, and sometimes even makes 
them sick. Medical students are frequently surprised and 
alarmed, when they begin the study of pathology, to find that 
they are the victims of the disease under investigation. Even 
a long course of practice, whilst it fortifies some against 
morbid mental impressions, renders others sensitive to their 
own trifling ailments, which their fancy magnifies into dan- 
gerous maladies. 
The weakest part of a man’s body in this respect is the 
sexual apparatus. It is the easiest thing in the world to con- 
vince a man who has ever been diseased in these organs that 
the disease is still in his system, or to convince him that he 
is suffering, or will suffer, from indiscretions, however trifling, 
of his former life. Here are the two cords on which charla- 
tans play with terrific success—private disease and seminal 
weakness. In this city, as in every large city in the world, 
there are at any given time hundreds if not thousands of men, 
who have been startled from their daily labors in the mines 
and fields and work-shops by reading the well-devised, sensa- 
tional advertisements which pollute the columns of almost 
every newspaper, secular and religious. Gathering up their 
hard earnings, they hie them away to the city and rush into 
the trap. Their fears are realized ; their apprehensions are 
fostered, and a cure is guaranteed for a fee in advance. Once 
in the toils, their course is onward and downward forever. 
Without employment, they spend their time traveling to and 
from the pool of infection; brooding over their thousand 
sufferings, fancied and real; perusing the poison literature 
of quackery ; giving and receiving increased trouble by com- 
paring notes with other sufferers like themselves ; until, their 
last dollar and their last hope gone, they lie down to die in 
a public hospital, or spend their last days in gibbering idiocy. 
It is a great mistake to suppose that quackery is a plan 1874. 
//lustrations of the Literature of Quackery. 
11 
which grows only on the miry soil of ignorance. On the 
contrary, many of the most mendacious and successful quacks 
are well educated men and graduates of medical institutions ; 
and many of the best patrons of such impostors belong to 
the polite circle of society. There is, in this respect, an 
attraction of opposites—a sort of polarity, which brings 
together elements the most antagonistic in their general 
character. We have seen in this city a semi-barbarian Asiatic, 
but little above a brute in intellect and knowledge, pat- 
ronized by the families of intelligent merchants and bank- 
ers. And the most adroit and unprincipled charlatan, per- 
haps, who ever flourished on the Pacific Coast, was a gradu- 
ate of London. 
It may be said to the credit of American graduates, not- 
withstanding the low standard of requirements so much com- 
plained of, that they seldom lose the sense of professional 
honor which attaches to their education. They are seldom 
guilty of high treason to the professional code. Of all the 
graduates of the California schools, now numbering upwards 
of one hundred, I do not know of one who has degenerated 
into an advertising quack. We are indebted to England and 
Ireland for most of our educated charlatans. Germany fur- 
nishes a few only, and a French quack is a rare animal. 
“Anatomical Museums,” as they are called, are advertise- 
ments which conceal their real purpose. A large collection 
in wax exhibits the effects of disease on the organs of genera- 
tion in both sexes. There is enough of anatomy and pathol- 
ogy in the collection to impart a scientific flavor to the other- 
wise corrupting and disgusting exhibition. A lecture is em- 
braced in the programme, and this lecture is cunningly 
framed for the purpose of seducing credulous and imagina- 
tive hearers into the belief that they are diseased, and thus 
drawing them into the toils. 
Several years ago I published in the Pacific Medical and 
Surgical Journal the description of an interview with a gen- 
tleman of this city had with the proprietor of the museum, 
and which I procured from his own lips. It was in substance 12 
Pacific Medical and Surgical Journal. 
[JlJNEj 
as follows : “ The patient is scarcely sick—does not know 
whether lie is sick or well—has heard a lecture at the ‘Anatom- 
ical Museum,’ which is part of the scheme, and wdiicli has 
started some apprehension in his mind. A fee of $5 or $10 
secures a hearing. The urine must be examined while the 
patient waits. If he be a man of consequence in the com- 
munity, the ‘doctor’ puts on large airs and keeps him wait- 
ing an hour or two, in the style of the Pontiff and Prince 
Henry. Finally, the strutting finished, and the impatient pa- 
tient sufficiently impressed with the preliminary demonstra- 
tions, the mountebank sits at his side and proceeds sol- 
emnly: ‘Now, Mr. Shivers, you must control your feelings 
and remain composed. I don’t wish to alarm you, sir, but 
you are in a bad way. Your urine is full of animalcules. 
The microscope shows them plainly. Be tranquil, sir ; your 
case is not desperate; but your blood is full of spermatozoa. 
Let me show you the danger, sir. (Here the artist draws on 
paper two parallel lines to represent a bloodvessel, and pencils 
a number of eels wriggling along endwise.) Now, sir, as 
long as the animalcules swim endwise there is no difficulty. 
They circulate all about the body without injury. But let 
one of them get crosswise, so. Don’t you see the effect—to 
obstruct the bloodvessel instantly? And then you drop 
dead, sir ! This is one cause of so many sudden deaths. Be 
calm, sir; I don’t wish to alarm you. But if you were to 
leave my office now, and some one were to come in presently 
and tell me that a man had fallen dead at the corner of Stock- 
ton street, I should know it was you,5:1 and so forth. “Well, 
doctor, can you cure me ? and on what terms ? ” asks Mr. 
Shivers. “Certainly, sir; I have two methods. One is the 
more speedy, but very costly. It requires a medicine which 
is very expensive. It will cost you $500. The other is the 
more common method, and will cost $300.” If the patient 
is sufficiently psychologized he pays down the money, if he 
has it. But if he begins to argue on finance, he is told to 
take time to consider, and to call again. The chances are 
largely in favor of his returning. In one instance the in- 1874.] 
Illustrations of the Literature of Quackery. 
13 
tended victim was on his way back with the money in his 
pocket, when lie learned something that awakened his sus- 
picion, and induced him to turn aside for the present and 
procure an examination of the urine by an honest profes- 
sional man. The result was that the urine was found to be 
perfectly normal in every respect. In another instance, a 
patient having discovered the fraud after paying an enormous 
fee, demanded that the charlatan should refund it, and en- 
forced the application successfully by a demonstration not 
altogether professional. 
The Anatomical Museum is a foreign device, imported from 
London. It was first established in New York and Boston 
and then in San Francisco. When it was opened here, an 
attempt was made by the late Dr. Coit and myself to have it 
suppressed as an indecent exhibition. The case was investi- 
gated in one of the courts, and the jury was instructed to 
inspect it personally, by invitation of the proprietor. They 
were smitten by its charms, and reported it a school of virtue 
and of science; and it has been run from that day till now. 
It was not then known or suspected that it was merely a de- 
coy for even worse purposes. The Boston branch was de- 
stroyed by the great fire in that city, and has been refused 
permission to rebuild. 
A few years ago a certain healer of disease came down upon 
us like a divine presence, his feet “ scarcely deigning to tread 
the earth ”—in fact, refusing to do so for less than 150 a visit. 
He advertised in the newspapers to such an extent that it 
was rumored that some of them had entered into partner- 
ship with him. His certificates of cure have never been 
equaled by any one save the man who calls himself “Doc- 
tor” Aborn. Van Eisenburg had a brilliant yet brief career, 
and his flight was in the night time. 
Our people have not forgotten the “King of Pain,” who 
dashed through the State in a splendid vehicle with six white 
horses, scattering like autumn leaves his advertisements of 
aconite liniment, the virtue of which he had grown ac- 
quainted with by some accident. His knowledge of the ma- 14 
Pacific Medical and Surgical Journal. 
[June, 
teria medica was bounded by this one article, but he was an 
expert card-player, and invested in gambling the proceeds of 
his speculation in human credulity. He traveled very fast 
and came to a miserable end through a greater “pain killer” 
than aconite. 
Every phase or special dispensation of quackery finds a 
given portion of the community susceptible to its specific 
virus; and its popularity endures until the supply of mate- 
rial is exhausted. The itinerant charlatan luxuriates in new 
localities, and when his failures and blunders multiply, and 
his impostures are revealed so as to overshadow his certifi- 
cates and pretensions, he folds up his tent and steals away 
in silence to other pastures. Some run their course swiftly 
like cholera and small pox, soon consuming the appropriate 
material; others become chronic and are disposed to domes- 
ticate themselves like the “seven years’ itch.” 
The types of the printer are made to do more pure, un- 
adulterated falsehood, with a smaller portion of truth, in the 
service of quackery, than in any other department of their 
application. No person who embarks in the career of char- 
latanism, or who undertakes to push a nostrum, can have the 
least hope of success without first throwing away his con- 
science, and either at once by deliberate design, or slowly by 
insensible gradations, selling himself to the Father of Lies. 
Perhaps I should not have left the peaceful fields of medi- 
cal literature to make this foray upon the bandits of society, 
were it not for a personal grievance. Some twelve or fifteen 
years ago an individual, somewhere in the mining region, 
dropped his pick and shovel, and came to this city to prac- 
tice medicine. His medical education was accomplished 
whilst the earth was making a single revolution on its axis. 
To-day he was John Fitzgibbon—to-morrow, “Dr. J. F. 
Gibbon”; and the transformation was rendered available by 
ornamenting the walls and casks and boxes throughout the 
city with a handbill displaying a photograph of Esculapius, 
and announcing “Doctor Gibbon’s Dispensary,” for the cure 
of a certain class of diseases. At the same time the news- 1874. 
Illustrations of the Literature of Quackery. 
15 
papers of the Pacific coast were stocked with the same ad- 
vertisement. As I had been in practice here since 1850, and 
had two brothers also practicing medicine in other parts of 
the State, the name was well known; and the imitation, in 
fact, the assumption of it, was too barefaced an imposture 
to admit of a doubt as to the motive. 
From that time to the present I have been the recipient, 
personally and by letter, of applications for “patent French 
safes,” and for the means of producing abortion, and for the 
treatment of “weaknesses ” and loathsome diseases—applica- 
tions made in the belief that I was the author of the filthy 
advertisements in question. Such things show how many 
persons there are in a community supposed to be intelligent, 
who are ignorant that the advertising of one’s qualifications 
and cures is h£ld to be dishonorable and disgraceful among 
all educated and respectable physicians; and that it is in- 
variably' a mark of incompetency or of fraudulent design, 
frequently of both. They also serve to illustrate the extreme 
loathsomeness of the business carried on by advertisers in 
general, and its hostility to the physical and moral interests 
of its dupes and victims. 
The relation of this system of advertising to the practice of 
criminal abortion is no trilling matter. Advertisers generally 
manage to convey covertly to parties concerned the intima- 
tion of their readiness to perpetrate this crime. They talk 
of removing female obstructions, and so forth, or they resort 
to the trick of advising pregnant women not to take their 
medicines ; and though the purport of such publications is 
well known, yet there are few conductors of newspapers who 
refuse to print and circulate them, and thus to make them- 
selves accomplices. Thus advertisers and editors are in the 
daily practice of doing under cover, but knowingly, what 
would be felony if done openly. 
Under the head of “ Homoeopathic Specifics,” advertised 
extensively, there stands one item distinguished from the 
rest by its double price, and designated as requiring great 
care in its administration. And yet this cloven-footed col- 
lection of “specifics” is sold by our apothecaries in general. 16 
Pacific Medical and Surgical journal. 
JunE; 
I will not say that advertisers are all abortionists, but I do 
say that when men calling themselves “doctors ” go into the 
advertising business, they identify themselves with impostors 
and abortionists, and have no claim on the respect or confi- 
dence of society. They throw their reputation on the mar- 
ket and sell it for gold. Their conduct demonstrates that, 
if they are not abortionists, it is only because the pay is less 
in that direction. 
Certificates of cure with which charlatans bait their hooks 
are the -weakest and most fallacious of human evidence. 
Never wras there a pretender so ignorant, or a medicine so 
vile or so inert, that could not accumulate thousands of 
cures, from hypochondriacs, feeble-minded people, charity 
patients, and accommodating friends, to say nothing of down- 
right forgery, which produces most of the published certifi- 
cates. 
In the concoction of the various kinds of “Bitters,” there 
is but little else than fraud. Nothing so much as a vegetable 
bitter disguises the quality of inferior spirits ; and nothing 
so much as alcohol, good or bad in quality, disguises the 
nature of a vegetable bitter. The veriest fool can manufac- 
ture medicinal “Bitters,”—an experiment which has been 
successfully tried again and again. Nature has been lavish 
in her distribution of bitter plants. They abound every- 
where. Many of them are harmless or positively tonic, and 
a small proportion only contain noxious qualities. Even the 
poisonous bitters, such as nux vomica, are bitter beyond 
proportion to their tonic properties. It is said one grain of 
strychnia will impart a perceptible bitter taste to a hogshead 
of water. In the early days of California, when the demand 
for “Bitters,” exceeded the supply, some ingenious manipu- 
lator discovered that the “Man Root,” or “Wild Cucumber,” 
of our sand-hills (Megarrliiza Oregana), could be made into 
pure Stoughton Bitters; and thirsty invalids without num- 
ber drenched themselves innocently with this excellent 
Stoughton. And yet this root is highly acrid and really poi- 
sonous in large quantities. I have known death to result 
from its use, through intestinal inflammation. It grows to 1874. 
Tllustrations of the Literature of Quackery. 
17 
an enormous size in the sand-hills within the limits of the 
city, sometimes nearly as large as a barrel. The name “Mau- 
Itoot,” was given, no doubt, on account of its size and form. 
There is enough of it on the Pacific Coast to manufacture 
all the “Bitters” of every name, which goes down the throats 
of the population. The same might be said of the Yarrow, 
which is a wholesome bitter. Besides these we have Worm- 
wood, Willow, Dogwood, Sneeze-weed (Helenium), and others, 
abounding in all directions. 
The most noxious, in fact the only noxious product of dis- 
tillation, excepting always the alcohol itself, is Fusel Oil. It 
is difficult to separate Fusel Oil from distilled liquors, and 
its presence in large quantities injures their sale. ' Such 
liquors are economically applied to the manufacture of “Bit- 
ters.” Indeed, there is no product of the still too vile to 
make “Bitters” of the first quality, in which the inferior and 
impure spirit is completely disguised. The process is ad- 
mirably simple. Some child of toil, who has grown weary 
with wiping the sweat from his brow, buys a lot of the cheapest 
whisky which the market affords, and steeps in it one or more 
bitter herbs which he finds at hand. He gives the concoc- 
tion a distinctive name, and calls himself “Doctor,” though 
lie has never so much as held a doctor’s stirrup, or blacked 
a doctor’s boots. If he has a religious turn, so much the 
better; or-if he is altogether knavish, it is none the worse. 
He proclaims himself the monopolist of a wonderful herb 
procured from the Modocs or Apaches, and distributes his 
dilute tinctures to such amiable fools as will give him certifi- 
cates. Of superior value are the certificates of clergymen— 
many of whom are so innocent and credulous as to serve his 
purpose remarkably well. A few bottles sent to an editor 
will pay. Perhaps he can find some doctors who will permit 
him to immortalize them by publishing their names. The 
rest is plain sailing—thanks to types and newspapers. His 
fortune is made, and at the same time a large number 
of drunkards, who have trained on whisky under a false 
name. 
Druggists have strong inducements to engage in the man- 18 
Pacific Medical and Surgical Journal. 
[June, 
ufacture of “Bitters.” Bitter herbs in great variety and 
quantity are liable to accumulate on tlieir hands. In mak- 
ing tinctures and other preparations, large amounts of dregs 
and refuse matters collect. These sources supply the bitter 
element almost free of cost, and sufficient to impregnate im- 
mense qnantities of alcoholic liquors to the proper standard 
of medicinal bitters. 
The formula, then, for medicinal bitters in general, runs 
thus : Take of cheapest whisky, an indefinite quantity ; of 
any bitter vegetable, herb, flower, root or bark, q. s. Mix, 
and flavor with anything or nothing. Put in bottles and em- 
ploy an expert liar to write labels and certificates. Present 
a few bottles to editors and clergymen of taste. Advertise 
largely and sell for five hundred per cent, above cost of 
material. 
This subject is highly important in its moral relations. 
Medicated bitters are not used like ordinary medicines, in 
occasional doses.. They are repeated day after day, habitu- 
ally. Composed, as they are essentially, of alcohol, they 
lead directly and often irresistibly to intemperance. The 
entire spawrn of medicinal “Bitters” are little more than 
lures to drunkenness. It is surprising that respectable 
apothecaries sell and distribute them—more surprising still 
that they originate and invent them. The traffic in medicated 
‘ ‘ Bitters ” is a fraud and a nuisance, calling for legal re- 
straint. 
A number of years ago, an individual coming overland 
with a company to California, served as cook for the com- 
pany, and was styled “doctor” on that account. He set- 
tled in Calaveras County and labored as a miner, without 
much success. His attention was then turned to the medi- 
cinal qualities of the herbs growing about him, and he came 
to San Francisco with the idea of making and vending a pre- 
paration to be called “Indian Vegetable Bitters,” and to 
contain no alcohol. He fell in with an enterprising druggist 
of this city, who saw money in the project and embarked in 
it. At the suggestion of the latter, the “ Indian ” was struck 
out, and as the new medicine got sour by fermentation, it 1874. 
Illustrations of tlte Literature of Quackery. 
19 
was concluded to call it “ Vinegar Bitters,” and to identify 
it with the movement against alcoholic drinks. The moun- 
tain herbs were thrust aside, and aloes, being a cheap bitter, 
was substituted. “Nine sick people out of ten,” said the 
druggist, “ will be cured by purging.” Wherefore the aloes. 
So the cook became doctor, and the decoction became sour, 
and “Doctor Walker’s Vinegar Bitters” began their career 
in the newspapers. 
At this juncture, I one day opened a new issue of the “Pa- 
cific Medical and Surgical Journal,” of which I was editor, 
and found, to my amazement and mortification, a full page 
advertisement of this nostrum, with all its pretensions duly 
set forth. The advertisement had been sent to the printing 
office and inserted without my knowledge. It did not appear 
again. 
A year or more afterwards, a gentleman wrote me from 
St. Louis, inquiring if I had ever endorsed the nostrum, and 
stating that every bottle of it distributed in the valley of the 
Mississippi bore my recommendation. The good “Doctor” 
Walker, or an equally conscientious coadjutor, had copied 
from the discarded advertisement his own statement of the 
virtues of the “Bitters,” and credited it to me as the editor 
of the Journal! If the traffic in nostrums is thus capable of 
developing fraud and forgery in men of moral and religious 
character, to what extremes of depravity must it reduce those 
who have no higher motive than worldly gain! 
The truth is, the “Vinegar Bitters” is one of the vilest, if 
not the very vilest, of all the concoctions in the market; and 
it is rendered more repulsive and obnoxious by concealing 
its poison with the mask of temperance. That it contains 
alcohol there is no doubt. Even if the dregs from the tinc- 
ture bottles are not appropriated in its manufacture, the fer- 
mentation which it undergoes produces alcohol. Its harsh 
and drastic properties have given rise to serious injury in 
many instances within the knowledge of myself and others. 
I am cognizant of the instance of a man who contracted a 
habit of using it so as to consume a bottle in a day. The 
result was an attack of acute mania, for which he was sent to 20 
Pacific Medical and Surgical Journal. 
[June, 
Stockton. He recovered, in a short time, and is now living 
in San Francisco to tell the story, but not to illustrate it by 
drinking “temperance bitters.” 
Is there no way of protecting society against the array of 
impostors and impostures which prey on health and life? It 
is not my purpose to answer this question, nor would it be 
proper to prolong this article. Various expedients have been 
proposed—such as prohibiting the practice of medicine-or 
the assumption of the title of doctor without a diploma; 
requiring all proprietary or patent medicines to have their 
ingredients printed on the label, and so forth. Hitherto, 
laws for the suppression of quackery have done but 
little good—at least in America. It is difficult to enforce 
them, and any attempt to do so on the part of physicians is 
attributed to sordid motives. But the people, not the medi- 
cal faculty, have need of the protection. By creating dis- 
ease and by training the minds of people to morbid action 
and their bodies to perpetual overdosing, quacks and quack 
medicines increase the demand for regular treatment. They 
manure the soil for the growth and accumulation of morbid 
products. If legislatures determine to interpose the shield 
of law for the protection of their constituents, certainly we 
shall not object. But law, alone, is impotent. The evil 
is too deeply rooted for that remedy. I have more hope of 
success against the nostrum deluge through an infusion of 
conscience into the “middle-men”—the druggists and apoth- 
ecaries who stand between the fountain and its distribution, 
and irrigate the community with the poisonous flood. By 
their associations, publications and colleges, our pharmacists 
are fast elevating their business above the standard of 
the beer - shop, and before long it will be as disrepu- 
table for an apothecary to deal in “Bitters” and other 
nostrums as to sell grog. But the advertising quacks and 
impostors are more difficult to manage. Arrayed on their 
side are ignorance, prejudice, credulity, and other base ele- 
ments of character In the common people, and above all, the 
annual subsidy of ten millions of dollars, which enables them 
to purchase and control the periodical press of America.