Quacks, Eccentrics and Alternative Therapies, Tales of Colonial Medicine is divided into 3 themes: 1. Quacks
With no effective regulation of propriety medicines or medical practitioners, the nineteenth century was the golden age of quack potions, apparatuses like the electric belts, and the rather suspect practitioners and medical institutes, such as the Freeman and Wallace Electro-Medical Surgical Institute.
Colonial medicine in Victoria was not without its eccentrics such as "Diamond Jim" James George Beaney who operated with diamond rings on his hands, and David Hailprin whose strange rituals for healing the sick included using dog fat. Both men were noted amongst their colleagues as somewhat unconventional in their theories and practice of medicine.
Alternative therapists were very successful in the Australian colonies and offered the sick alternative treatments not available in conventional European medicine.
|