Interesting article. The 18th and 19th century are foreign enough to make you smile incredulously -- the overall imagery, cocaine toothache drops, <i>Restorative Nervous Cordials</i> against masturbation -- and are, at the same time, very relatable: a somewhat industrialized world with global travel, universities, advertisements, to name just a few themes that come up in the article. It almost feels like a satire of the modern world.<p>And of course, as the article points out, quackery is far from dead (though it&#x27;s a matter of opinion where exactly it starts). Then as now, there&#x27;s fertile breeding ground: lack of education, lack of resources, a <i>“sufficient number of hypochondriacs” and the legion of bored, unhappy people suffering rather vaguely from “nerves”.</i> Striking, isn&#x27;t it?<p>Let me hasten to add that it&#x27;s very likely that many of those people were genuinely sick, and it just took us another couple of centuries to find the technology to diagnose and treat them. Though if you&#x27;re of the persuasion that includes Big Pharma in the quackery camp, maybe it&#x27;s the quackery that got more refined instead.