The Electric Corset and Other Victorian Miracles: Medical Devices and Treatments from the Golden Age of Quackery

The Victorian and Edwardian eras saw the emergence of various health movements, including strange medical devices and quack cures, which were often based on simplistic beliefs and the placebo effect. While some of these treatments were properly used as appropriate therapies, they can now appear absurd and cruel. This book explores these treatments in the perspective of modern medicine and argues that quackery should be defined by the fraudulent intent of the people who pushed them, rather than their ineffectiveness.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 277 pages
Publication date: 30 July 2022
Publisher: McFarland & Co Inc

Through the Victorian and Edwardian eras, various health movements emerged in the transition to the modern age of scientific medicine. Strange medical devices and quack cures were pushed, often using crude remedies based on simplistic beliefs and the placebo effect. Currently, some of these treatments appear absurd, even cruel. Because some were properly used as appropriate therapies, it is difficult to label them altogether as bogus.

This book takes a thorough look at unconventional medical gadgets, as well as the strange devices and therapies used by both fringe and legitimate healers, and places them in the perspective of modern medicine. The author argues that quackery should not be defined by the ineffectiveness of a therapy, but rather be based on the fraudulent intent of the people who pushed dishonest and deceptive remedies.

Weight: 151g
Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781476683836