Quackery

Quackery is a derogatory term used to describe the promotion of unproven or fraudulent medical practices. Quotes I bought an unction of a mountebank,So mortal that, but dip a knife in it,Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare,Collected from all simples that have virtueUnder the moon, can save the thing from deathThat is but scratch'd withal. William Shakespeare, Hamlet (1600-02), Act IV, scene 7, line 142. So long as the body is affected through the mind, no audacious device, even of the most manifestly dishonest character, can fail of producing occasional good to those who yield it an implicit or even a partial faith. The argument founded on this occasional good would be as applicable in justifying the counterfeiter and giving circulation to his base coin, on the ground that a spurious dollar had often relieved a poor man's necessities. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., Homoeopathy and Its Kindred Delusions (1842). But however mysterious is nature, however ignorant the doctor, however imperfect the present state of physical science, the patronage and the success of quacks and quackeries are infinitely more wonderful than those of honest and laborious men of science and their careful experiments. P. T. Barnum, The Humbugs of the World (1865), Chapter XXVIII Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 652. Void of all honor, avaricious, rash,The daring tribe compound their boasted trash—Tincture of syrup, lotion, drop, or pill;All tempt the sick to trust the lying bill. George Crabbe, Borough, Letter VII, line 75. From powerful causes spring the empiric's gains,Man's love of life, his weakness, and his pains;These first induce him the vile trash to try,Then lend his name, that other men may buy. George Crabbe, Borough, Letter VII, line 124. Out, you impostors!Quack salving, cheating mountebanks! your skillIs to make sound men sick, and sick men kill. Philip Massinger, Virgin-Martyr, Act IV, scene 1. See also Snake oil External links quackery Category:Commerce Category:Health