Book Review

The popular circus showman P.T. Barnum once warned that “humbug” was everywhere in the medical profession. In Quack, Quack, Quack, William Helfand, a historian of pharmacy, proves Barnum right. A chronicle of quackery in picture and prose, Helfand's book examines the depths of medical chicanery in Western culture over the past 400 years. “Quacks have been with us forever,” explains Helfand. Never “static,” quackery has “modified its offering to adjust to new therapeutic discoveries and new means of communication,” as well as “to almost any prevailing political and regulatory system.” Helfand demonstrates the adaptability of quackery with 183 fascinating images . . .