Quack cures

The entire question of testimonials for various treatments is a difficult and complex one. Quack cures, for example, often have avid supporters. Logan (1976), in his autobiography, described his many contacts with psychiatric treatment over the years, including earlier public testimonials for psychiatry. He expressed surprise that people are critical of electroshock treatment, which he found to be very benign. ... 

The character of Subtle might be based on Simon Forman, who is mentioned by name in another of Jonson s plays. Forman, born in 1552, seems to have been a medical quack who sold love philters as a sideline. He was fined several times for pretending to cure the ill and was also sent to prison a number of times. In 1594 he began to tell fortunes and to experiment with transmutation. He attracted several wealthy customers, mostly women. Once he was asked to provide philters to the countess of Essex, who wanted to divorce her husband and win the love of the earl of Somerset. These facts came out during the murder trial of a woman who had acted as a go-between on behalf of the countess. 

Other product ideas can be found in the electromedical quackery that claimed to cure many people via electricity 100 years ago. Quacks claimed that they could... 

Do not be taken in by the false claims and fancy cures of food faddists, makers of quack medicines, or unscrupulous drug purveyors they benefit (profit) only those who produce and market them. 

They are usually costly. Most foods and supplements used by faddists are expensive. Each year, Americans spend an estimated 2 billion on special foods, food supplements, and health lectures and literature. Today, conditions are ripe for fast operators to make a quick buck. Many people have become health conscious. The elderly, the adolescent, the obese, the people whose living depends on their physical appearance, and the sickly are looking for a quick fix and the charlatans happily accommodate them as they outsell reliable sources of nutrition information. As a result, many quacks, whose products and sales pitches are reminiscent of the medicine men of old, have developed a thriving business, pawning off a myriad of potions, cure-alls, and tonics. 

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