Thackray Museum of Medicine, Beckett Street, Leeds, LS9 7LN
This April Fool’s Day, we are delving into the deceptive world of quackery.
Questionable Quackery
Travel back to the origins of the quack doctor and explore the most dangerous and daft cures of the 18th and 19th centuries. Taking place in our Victorian Operating Theatre, this talk will expose some of the most notorious historical medicines of the past 300 years.
The 19th century saw an explosion of so-called nerve tonics and pills marketed as cures for everything from insomnia to melancholy. Some of these questionable cures were duds; others were downright dangerous. You will hear first-hand, the tricks and techniques of the crooks and charlatans who profited from them.
