In 1905, Samuel Hopkins Adams wrote an expose in Collier's magazine titled "the Great American Fraud" that discussed the plethora of quack medical devices that flooded the market at the turn of the century and the unethical "physicians" that peddled them. Concern over fraudulent doctors and medical devices has been present since ancient times. "The Great American Fraud: Quacks and Quackery in America" is a fascinating exhibit that documents the history of quacks and their "cures" in America from the birth of the nation to the present day. Through a broad spectrum of odd artifacts, coupled with photographs, graphics, and an array of period advertisements, the exhibit presents patent medicines, blood-letting instruments, magnetic cures, electrotherapeutic devices, violet ray machines, and other gadgets that claimed to cure just about any ailment. The exhibit closes with a presentation of attempts by the government, the medical profession, and others to stop the sale of quack medical devices and the practices of fraudulent physicians.
 Dinshah Spectro-Chrome Machine, ca. 1938, claimed to cure ailments by the sun shining through colored glass onto the body |
 Hartz Perfection Battery No. 1 (left) and Williams' Twentieth Century Battery (right), ca. 1905, were used to shock the patient to health  The Royal Electric Vibrator, ca. 1931, was a sexual device that claimed to cure just about any ailment |
A variety of instruments used during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to bleed patients |
A violet ray machine, ca. 1925, which claimed to cure just about anything using ozone and "healing rays" |
 Popular patent medicines of the nineteenth century, such as Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup, Kickapoo Indian Sagwa, and Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound claimed to cure many ailments, but usually only hurt the patient due to ingredients of drugs and alcohol |
Magnetic devices, such as Wilshire's I-ON-A-CO Magnetic Belt
and Hercules Sanches' Oxydonor were popular quack devices of the 1920s and 1930s
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Melnick Hall Youngstown State University 655 Wick Ave. Youngstown, OH 44555
Ph. 330-941-4661 Fax. 330-941-3734