Main description:

Through the Victorian and Edwardian eras, various new health movements emerged in the transition to the modern age of scientific medicine. Strange medical devices and quack cures were pushed for the curing of illnesses during this time, frequently using crude remedies based on simplistic beliefs and the placebo effect. Nowadays, some of these treatments appear absurd, even cruel. Because some of these devices were properly used as appropriate therapies, it's difficult to label them altogether as bogus devices.

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.

Contents:

Preface
One. Time for a Change
Two. If It Quacks Like a Duck...
Three. Promises and Placebos
Four. Some Early Medical Devices
Five. Magnetic Devices
Six. The Mysteries of Electricity
Seven. Messing with the Mind
Eight. Advanced Electrical Quackery
Nine. Reshaping the Outside
Ten. Treating the Insides
Eleven. Behold the Light
Twelve. The Promise of Restored Youth
Thirteen. The Power of Radioactivity
Postscript
Glossary: Medical Terminology
Appendix: The Electromagnetic Spectrum
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index