Featured Article

 Print   �  Bookmark

Medical Meddlers, Mediums & Magicians  

09 May 2012 

15:17 

Medical Meddlers, Mediums and Magicians 

By Dr. Keith Souter. Published 2012 by The History Press

Don't be deceived by the title, it is definitely an authoritative book. Well researched and equally well written. I recommend this for anybody planning a career in the profession of medicine. It is an introduction to life, professions and common sense. 

Life being that it is not always what one perceives to be. Professions are often only as deep as the word used or the paper it is printed on. Common sense, being you must trust your heart, it will often lead you in the right direction. 

We look to day with the aid of this book upon medicine and similar professions and how they were practised not even so long ago. As one reads you will recall instantly the wandering carpetbaggers in America that heralded their tonics as a cure all. Often sold off the back of a wagon in preparation to leave town as soon as sundown. 

The scams outlined in this book are a bit more sophisticated in their approach and pitch, but end results not dissimilar. One can see that human nature fed on desperate souls, sometimes curing with luck other times blinding with science. The establishment of professional associations culled the hucksters and refined the scam. We look back to days were medical practise was mostly operated by the criminally insane. 

I often feel that today's medicine isn't to far from those days gone. The average doctor is more concerned with procedure rather than the cure. Precious little advice is given, just more pills. To think we have advanced mightily is an illusion. Hospitals today are made to die in. Cures are dispensed by doctors who know little and believe in the con of the pharmaceutical industry. Only till recently did we slave to this paradigm. The cons of 50/100 years ago is just today more refined. We slaved and paid because we too, fell into the trap of white suits and fancy titles. 

This book will provide you with real life examples of doubtful cures f the past, helping you decide what is real in the present. The Victorian thirst for knowledge so well evident between the lines is actually still ingrained in the medical profession. Today there are real cures, yet to the most dreaded diseases we still are grasping for straws, which inevitably leads us to want to believe. 

Like the desire to fly, human want to communicate with the dead. Man advocate the ability, but even now, as then, it turns into expensive quackery. Although common sense is our best guide, this book will be a good guide as to what to watch out for. The book will be a great delight for historians no doubt.

James van Etten, Editor, Clippings News 

TOP