THE MEDICAL MESSIAHS

by James Harvey Young ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1967

This is a successor, in fact a sequel, to the Toadstool Millionaires (1961) although the legislation with which that book and era concludes, the passage of the F.D.A. or Wiley's law, should have put an end to the rampant number of nostrums, ""boozers and bracers,"" and other more dangerous drugs on the market. This then covers the next sixty years following the prosecution of Cuforhedake Brane-Fude, the breakthrough case after the law was passed: missionaries such as Wiley, Dr. Cramp of the A.M.A. whose daughter was one of the casualties of quackery, Tugwell of the New Deal who tried to revamp the inefficient Wiley law, et al.; messiahs such as pitchmen Gayelord Hauser, Hohensee, and Harry Hoxsey whose cancer clinics ""metastasized"" from Texas to the midwest; medications such as an which killed its chemist among a hundred others, B. & W. which cured anything from ""la grippe"" to tuberculosis, male mail-order restoratives, miracle drugs, barbiturates, gadgets, anything from Hadacol to thalidomide. Among the more respectable offenders--Listerine, Bromo Seltzer, Fasteeth. They're all there, and so is a great deal of the legislation and litigation they involved--perhaps too exhaustive a purgative for the general reader but all stringently researched and well enough written to ensure his interest once engaged.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1967

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1967

Categories: NONFICTION