JF Ptak Science Books   Quick Post

See also the related post from 2012 “A Bloated Alphabet of Fat Cures: Strychnine Pills, Vibrators and Hope”, here.

Pushing its way past other adds in the back of the May 1903 issue of The Confederate Veteran is this contagiously interesting advertisement for a very loud quack cure for “blood poisoning”.  It was manufactured by the Cook Remedy Company of Chicago, Illinois, and offered their cure (“unknown to the profession”) to sufferers of “the Bad Disease”, which they say can affect anyone, not just confined to “dens of vice or the lower classes”.  “Our magic cure” they say, can help all sufferers, curing “quickly and permanently”–otherwise the bad stuff happens, not the least of which was bringing “disease to you and disgrace upon your children”, which is tough hardball stuff, especially coming from con-artist quick-thieves who would say anything and offer any hope to desperate people for a buck, trading on frailty, ill-health, and fear.  

By Cook Remedy was identified as a quack organization by the federal government, having a not-so-pretty appearance in the 1912 Hearings on the Pure Food and Drug Act.  

I suppose that the cross in “Blood Poison” was designed to resemble a cemetery/graveyard marker…