Medical Messiahs: A Social History of Health Quackery in Twentieth-Century
America, by James Harvey Young; Rev. 1992, Princeton University Press. An excellent chronology of nostrums and gadgets, and their court histories.
The Health Robbers, edited by Stephen Barrett and William T. Jarvis, Published 1993 by Prometheus Books, 59 John Glenn Drive, Buffalo, NY 14228-2197; ph. 716-837-2475.
Four White Horses and a Brass Band by Violet ("Lotus Blossom") McNeal, the colorful and tawdry autobiography of one of the greatest pitch women.
Step Right Up by Brooks McNamara, a history of the American medicine shows, Doubleday and Co.
Nostrums and Quackery by Arthur J. Cramp, MD. Three successive volumes in early 20th century: volume 1, 1911; volume 2, 1921; volume 3, 1936. A comprehensive look at medical quackery in its finest hour, with biting commentary and court histories.
Sears-Roebuck catalog, reprints before 1936.
The Great American Fraud by Samuel Hopkins Adams, Colliers The American
Weekly, Oct. 7, 1905-Sept. 1906 (reprinted later by the AMA as a book). This singular, most devastating assault against medical quackery led to the Pure Food and Drug Act.
Notices of Judgement published by the FDA, U.S. Dept of Agriculture (Department of Chemistry pre-WW II.
Rowbottom, M; Suskind, C.
Electricity and Medicine: History of Their
Interaction (1984) (San Francisco Press, PO Box 6800, San Francisco, CA
94101-6800)Packard, FB;
(History of some famous quacks) (Johns Hopkins Hospital
Bulletin 15:316-323, 1904)
History of Electrotherapy; Licht, S. (New Haven, CT; Elizabeth Licht
Publishing, 1959)
Franklin's Introduction to Electricity Heathcote, NH de V.;
(Isis
46:280-281, 1955)
An Essay on the History of Electrotherapy and Diagnosis
Colwell, HA; (London, William Heinemann, 1922)
Quacks of Old London
Thompson, CJS; (Philadelphia, PA; JB Lippincot, 1929)
The Doctor in History Haggards, HW;(New Haven, CT; Yale University Press,
1934)
The Man Who Dared the Lightning
Fleming, R.(New York, NY; William Marrow
Co., 1971)
Bibliographical History of Electricity and Magnetism Mottelay, PF. (New
York, NY; Maurizio Martino Publishing, reprinted 1980)
Nostrums and Quackery (American Medical Association, Chicago; Vol. I, 1911;
second edition, expanded, 1912. Vol. II, 1921)
Miscellaneous Nostrums (American Medical Association, Chicago, third
edition, 1917)
Nostrums and Quackery and Pseudo-medicine, Vol. III (American Medical
Association, Chicago, 1936)
The Snake Oil Syndrome--Patent Medicine Advertising
Bingham, A. Walker, (1994) (The Christopher Publishing House, Hanover, MA 02339)
The Cults of Unreason
Evans, Dr. Christopher, (1973) (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, NY)
Fads and Quackery in Healing Fishbein, Morris, M.D.; (1932) (Covici,
Friede, publishers)
The Golden Age of Quackery
Holbrook, Stewart H.; (1959) (The Macmillan Co.)
One for a Man, Two for a Horse: A Pictorial History,
Carson, Gerald; Grave
and Comic of Patent Medicines (1961) (1st edition, color, Doubleday and
Co.; 2nd edition, B/W, Bramhall House, NY)
The Technology of the Orgasm: Hysteria, the Vibrator and
Women's Sexual Satisfaction Maines, Rachel P.; (1999) (The Johns Hopkins University Press)
The Pill Rollers: Apothecary
Antiques and Drug Store Collectibles
Richardson, Lillian C. and Charles G.; (1992) (Old Fort Press, Harrison, VA
22801)
Toadstool Millionaires
Young, James Harvey;
American Health Quackery: Collected Essays
Young, James Harvey; (1992)
(Princeton University Press)
Catalog of X-Ray Apparatus, Electromedical Apparatus, and Allied Apparatus
(Cavendish Electrical Company, London, 1912; reprinted by PV Scientific
Instruments:
http://people.clarityconnect.com/webpages2/arcsandsparks/default.html)
A System for Electrotherapeutics as Taught by the International
Correspondence Schools (1899) (The Colliery Engineer Company, Scranton, PA)
Handbook of Electrotherapeutics
Dugan, William James, M.D.; (1909) (F.A.
Davis Company)
A Working Manual of High Frequency Currents Eberhart, Noble M.;(1920);
(New Medicine Publishing Co., 25 E. Washington St., Chicago, IL)
Static High Frequency, Radio, Photo and Radium
Therapy
King, William Harvey; (1905) (Reprinted by Lindsay Publications, Inc.) http://www.lindsaybks.com/)
High Frequency Currents
Strong, Frederic Finch, M.D.;(1908) (Rebman
Company, NY; reprinted by PV Scientific Instruments)