About Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything
Presented by Nate Pedersen, Author
What won't we try in our quest for perfect health, beauty, and the fountain of youth?
Well, just imagine a time when doctors prescribed morphine for crying infants. When liquefied gold was touted as immortality in a glass. And when strychnine-yes, that strychnine, the one used in rat poison-was dosed like Viagra.
Looking back with fascination, horror, and not a little dash of dark, knowing humor, this lecture recounts the lively, at times unbelievable, history of medical misfires and malpractices. Ranging from the merely weird to the outright dangerous, here are dozens of outlandish, morbidly hilarious "treatments"-conceived by doctors and scientists, by spiritualists and snake oil salesmen (yes, they literally tried to sell snake oil)-that were predicated on a range of cluelessness, trial and error, and straight-up scams.
Copies of Nate's book, Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything will also be for sale at the event.
About the Speaker:
Nate Pedersen is a librarian, historian, and writer in Oregon. He is the co-author of Quackery: The Worst Ways to Cure Everything, with Lydia Kang.
Nate is a Community Librarian with Deschutes Public Library and serves on the Board of Directors for the Deschutes County Historical Society & Museum. He is a member-at-large, representing Central Oregon, on the Oregon Heritage Trees Commission. He also lectures frequently on historical topics around the state.
Nate's journalism has appeared in The Art of Manliness, The Guardian, Trail Runner and The Believer. He is a blogger with Fine Books & Collections. His scholarly publications have appeared in the Oregon Historical Quarterly and the Oregon Encyclopedia.
