Caroline Rance
@quackdoctor.bsky.social
Writer focusing on the history of medicine, especially patent remedies and fraudsters at thequackdoctor.com and thequackdoctor.substack.com
Also co-host of literature podcast @shewrotetoo.bsky.social
Also co-host of literature podcast @shewrotetoo.bsky.social
Dr Thomas' Eclectric Oil, originating in Buffalo, NY, in the 1840s, was a camphor and turpentine preparation for rubbing onto aching joints or taking internally for coughs and colds. Trade cards like this often had cute, funny or interesting pictures to encourage people to hang onto them.
April 7, 2025 at 9:52 AM
Dr Thomas' Eclectric Oil, originating in Buffalo, NY, in the 1840s, was a camphor and turpentine preparation for rubbing onto aching joints or taking internally for coughs and colds. Trade cards like this often had cute, funny or interesting pictures to encourage people to hang onto them.
‘Sagliftology’ was a health system launched in 1926 by Percy and Georgean Poole of San Diego, CA, who called themselves doctors because they had awarded themselves degrees from their own college. Sagliftology used trusses and corsets to prevent the internal organs sagging and getting congested.
April 1, 2025 at 10:20 AM
‘Sagliftology’ was a health system launched in 1926 by Percy and Georgean Poole of San Diego, CA, who called themselves doctors because they had awarded themselves degrees from their own college. Sagliftology used trusses and corsets to prevent the internal organs sagging and getting congested.
Happy Valentine’s Day from this nice 1940s squirrel.
February 14, 2025 at 8:03 AM
Happy Valentine’s Day from this nice 1940s squirrel.
Here's an inventive marketing message from the H E Bucklen Company of Chicago in the late 19th century. Bucklen was said to spend $100,000 a year on advertising.
This excerpt is from ‘Dr King’s Lucky Book’ (1895), which included content about interpreting dreams, predicting future happiness, etc.
This excerpt is from ‘Dr King’s Lucky Book’ (1895), which included content about interpreting dreams, predicting future happiness, etc.
January 13, 2025 at 2:31 PM
Here's an inventive marketing message from the H E Bucklen Company of Chicago in the late 19th century. Bucklen was said to spend $100,000 a year on advertising.
This excerpt is from ‘Dr King’s Lucky Book’ (1895), which included content about interpreting dreams, predicting future happiness, etc.
This excerpt is from ‘Dr King’s Lucky Book’ (1895), which included content about interpreting dreams, predicting future happiness, etc.
We had a flurry of snow here this morning but not enough to go and play in, unlike the chap on this 1880s trade card promoting Lutted's Cough Drops.
January 7, 2025 at 10:41 AM
We had a flurry of snow here this morning but not enough to go and play in, unlike the chap on this 1880s trade card promoting Lutted's Cough Drops.
A cynical but still topical take from the December 1925 issue of the California and Western Medicine journal - the purported discovery of a weight loss injection coincides with the Paris dressmakers’ announcement that 100lb is the fashionable weight to be!
January 2, 2025 at 9:07 AM
A cynical but still topical take from the December 1925 issue of the California and Western Medicine journal - the purported discovery of a weight loss injection coincides with the Paris dressmakers’ announcement that 100lb is the fashionable weight to be!
A Happy New Year will be ensured if you take Bile Beans for Biliousness.
These best-selling laxatives contained aloin, cardamom, peppermint oil and wheat flour, with a black gelatine coating.
Ad from the Edinburgh Evening News, 27 Dec 1906.
#histmed
These best-selling laxatives contained aloin, cardamom, peppermint oil and wheat flour, with a black gelatine coating.
Ad from the Edinburgh Evening News, 27 Dec 1906.
#histmed
December 31, 2024 at 6:27 PM
A Happy New Year will be ensured if you take Bile Beans for Biliousness.
These best-selling laxatives contained aloin, cardamom, peppermint oil and wheat flour, with a black gelatine coating.
Ad from the Edinburgh Evening News, 27 Dec 1906.
#histmed
These best-selling laxatives contained aloin, cardamom, peppermint oil and wheat flour, with a black gelatine coating.
Ad from the Edinburgh Evening News, 27 Dec 1906.
#histmed
On this day in 1861, medical student Shephard Thomas Taylor recorded in his diary that the folks back home in Norfolk were unimpressed by London fashions in facial hair.
#histmed #victorianera
#histmed #victorianera
December 26, 2024 at 11:15 AM
On this day in 1861, medical student Shephard Thomas Taylor recorded in his diary that the folks back home in Norfolk were unimpressed by London fashions in facial hair.
#histmed #victorianera
#histmed #victorianera
‘Business … and the compliments of the season’. An undertaker calls in to wish a sick man merry Christmas and a happy new year in this early 19th century satirical print.
Image from
@wellcomecollection.bsky.social
Image from
@wellcomecollection.bsky.social
December 26, 2024 at 8:58 AM
‘Business … and the compliments of the season’. An undertaker calls in to wish a sick man merry Christmas and a happy new year in this early 19th century satirical print.
Image from
@wellcomecollection.bsky.social
Image from
@wellcomecollection.bsky.social
Merry Christmas from Santa’s favourite cigarette brand, 1915.
December 25, 2024 at 8:40 AM
Merry Christmas from Santa’s favourite cigarette brand, 1915.
This 1895 Art Nouveau poster by Will H Bradley (1868-1962), was part of an advertising campaign for Narcoti-Cure, which claimed to cure nicotine addiction.
The design shows that ‘the Devil is in all tobacco’, with the leaf-clad figure of Satan about to be vanquished by a Narcoti-Cure knight.
The design shows that ‘the Devil is in all tobacco’, with the leaf-clad figure of Satan about to be vanquished by a Narcoti-Cure knight.
November 27, 2024 at 3:20 PM
This 1895 Art Nouveau poster by Will H Bradley (1868-1962), was part of an advertising campaign for Narcoti-Cure, which claimed to cure nicotine addiction.
The design shows that ‘the Devil is in all tobacco’, with the leaf-clad figure of Satan about to be vanquished by a Narcoti-Cure knight.
The design shows that ‘the Devil is in all tobacco’, with the leaf-clad figure of Satan about to be vanquished by a Narcoti-Cure knight.
Death rides the storm ... a striking way to advertise Gowan's Pneumonia Cure in 1906. The product, made in Chicago, was a lard-based camphor rub for the chest, promoted as 'an easily absorbed food for the lungs.' It contained a bit of opium and quinine too.
#histmed
#histmed
November 26, 2024 at 9:51 AM
Death rides the storm ... a striking way to advertise Gowan's Pneumonia Cure in 1906. The product, made in Chicago, was a lard-based camphor rub for the chest, promoted as 'an easily absorbed food for the lungs.' It contained a bit of opium and quinine too.
#histmed
#histmed
One of my favourite patent medicines is the Sa-Ta-Nic Tonic Laxative, introduced in about 1915 in Wichita, KS.
Adverts claimed constipation was responsible for 90% of all diseases, so dealing with that would 'bring mental sunshine' and set you right.
#histmed
Adverts claimed constipation was responsible for 90% of all diseases, so dealing with that would 'bring mental sunshine' and set you right.
#histmed
November 20, 2024 at 2:15 PM
One of my favourite patent medicines is the Sa-Ta-Nic Tonic Laxative, introduced in about 1915 in Wichita, KS.
Adverts claimed constipation was responsible for 90% of all diseases, so dealing with that would 'bring mental sunshine' and set you right.
#histmed
Adverts claimed constipation was responsible for 90% of all diseases, so dealing with that would 'bring mental sunshine' and set you right.
#histmed
This is the cover of an 1883 advertising booklet for 'Seven Barks', a remedy promoted in NYC for kidney and liver problems, malaria, rheumatism, pimples and more.
The name referred to the bark on the wild hydrangeas from which it was supposedly made, but the dog pictures were a marketing winner.
The name referred to the bark on the wild hydrangeas from which it was supposedly made, but the dog pictures were a marketing winner.
November 19, 2024 at 3:41 PM
This is the cover of an 1883 advertising booklet for 'Seven Barks', a remedy promoted in NYC for kidney and liver problems, malaria, rheumatism, pimples and more.
The name referred to the bark on the wild hydrangeas from which it was supposedly made, but the dog pictures were a marketing winner.
The name referred to the bark on the wild hydrangeas from which it was supposedly made, but the dog pictures were a marketing winner.
This wonderful book cover graced Matthew Carrington Sykes’ 1903 work, The Curse, about alcohol abuse in British society.
Dr Sykes argued that temperance campaigns were ineffective and even made things worse, because ‘A Briton is by nature the most stubborn member of all nations living in Europe.’
Dr Sykes argued that temperance campaigns were ineffective and even made things worse, because ‘A Briton is by nature the most stubborn member of all nations living in Europe.’
November 18, 2024 at 4:09 PM
This wonderful book cover graced Matthew Carrington Sykes’ 1903 work, The Curse, about alcohol abuse in British society.
Dr Sykes argued that temperance campaigns were ineffective and even made things worse, because ‘A Briton is by nature the most stubborn member of all nations living in Europe.’
Dr Sykes argued that temperance campaigns were ineffective and even made things worse, because ‘A Briton is by nature the most stubborn member of all nations living in Europe.’
Some perennial advice in this early 20thC public information poster from Chicago Department of Health. It was designed by Dr Arthur Mills Corwin and reproduced in ‘How to Keep Well’ by W A Evans in 1918.
November 17, 2024 at 1:48 PM
Some perennial advice in this early 20thC public information poster from Chicago Department of Health. It was designed by Dr Arthur Mills Corwin and reproduced in ‘How to Keep Well’ by W A Evans in 1918.
If #movember is going well for you, it might be time for Carter's Threxaline, as advertised in The Strand Magazine, June 1891.
John Carter (1837-1910) was a high-class London hairdresser known as the ‘Barber to the Bar’ on account of his popularity with the City’s barristers and judges.
John Carter (1837-1910) was a high-class London hairdresser known as the ‘Barber to the Bar’ on account of his popularity with the City’s barristers and judges.
November 13, 2024 at 10:44 AM
If #movember is going well for you, it might be time for Carter's Threxaline, as advertised in The Strand Magazine, June 1891.
John Carter (1837-1910) was a high-class London hairdresser known as the ‘Barber to the Bar’ on account of his popularity with the City’s barristers and judges.
John Carter (1837-1910) was a high-class London hairdresser known as the ‘Barber to the Bar’ on account of his popularity with the City’s barristers and judges.
I don’t have a cat of my own to appease the Bluesky cat gods, but this is a regular visitor named Bear, who is tiny and fluffy.
September 2, 2024 at 1:00 PM
I don’t have a cat of my own to appease the Bluesky cat gods, but this is a regular visitor named Bear, who is tiny and fluffy.
For #internationaldogday here’s a Victorian good boy called Froggie.
He belonged to Mr J E Garratt, the London sales agent for the American cough lozenge brand ‘Frog in Your Throat?’ in the 1890s.
Mr Garratt took Froggie out for walks in his promotional blanket - I’m sure he made lots of sales!
He belonged to Mr J E Garratt, the London sales agent for the American cough lozenge brand ‘Frog in Your Throat?’ in the 1890s.
Mr Garratt took Froggie out for walks in his promotional blanket - I’m sure he made lots of sales!
August 26, 2024 at 10:41 AM
For #internationaldogday here’s a Victorian good boy called Froggie.
He belonged to Mr J E Garratt, the London sales agent for the American cough lozenge brand ‘Frog in Your Throat?’ in the 1890s.
Mr Garratt took Froggie out for walks in his promotional blanket - I’m sure he made lots of sales!
He belonged to Mr J E Garratt, the London sales agent for the American cough lozenge brand ‘Frog in Your Throat?’ in the 1890s.
Mr Garratt took Froggie out for walks in his promotional blanket - I’m sure he made lots of sales!