HeyJaredThe Quack Doctor
Stories from the history of medicine, with an inclination towards the strange.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 3
- Latest publication
- Sep 11, 2026
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- Earliest in this view
- Jul 24, 2026
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The bogus lady doctor (opens the original)
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‘I can cure you,’ the representative of the Ladies’ Medical Association told 37-year-old Julia Ann Ralph. ‘If you will trust in me and the Lord, take a few drops from this bottle, and pay me half a guinea down and undertake to pay half a guinea in six weeks’ time, then you will soon be a different woman.’1It was 1892 and Mrs Ralph of Aston, Birmingham, was dying of cancer. The doctors had told her there was nothing more they could do. Her six children – the youngest only a year old ̵
The tall tale of the American Giant (opens the original)
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A man sleeping off a hangover after a night at ‘the shrine of the rosy god’ was hardly a rare sight in 1820s Ayr.When sideshow proprietor John Cook found one of his troupe in this state, however, a unique challenge arose. The drunk chap was seven feet tall and, to put it in vulgar parlance, built like a brick shithouse. He had also mislaid most of his clothes. On waking, he refused to return to the show’s touring caravan, thereby breaking his contract.1The large man, James Henry Lambier, was und
A friendly chat with Gun Wa costs nothing (opens the original)
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A sick woman makes her way to 300 Grand Avenue, Milwaukee, in the summer of 1889. The heat has exacerbated her asthma and the doctor told her to rest. But certain advertisements in the local newspaper have been intriguing her for weeks. The man whose likeness adorns the page promises ancient wisdom and the herbs of a far-away land. Could he have the answer that will help her breathe?<a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!xxJu!,f_auto,q_auto:goo
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