An Honest Review

Hey,

Last night I finished reading Charlatan: America's most dangerous huckster, the man who pursued him and the age of flimflam by Pope Brock. On thing I hated about this book was how vague the title was concerning the subject matter. I had no idea what it could possibly be about.

So it turns out that the book follows the career of John Brinkley a "doctor" who became very famous in the 1920's and 30's for his "goat gland" treatment. Men who had "lost their pep" would come see Brinkley at one of his "hospitals" and he'd open up their scrotum, drop in a goat testicle and sew them back up again. He was wildly successful at this, in part, because he also built and operated one of the first radio stations in Kansas to shill his products.

Eventually, Brinkley came to the attention of the AMA and it's Journal editor, Morris Fishbein. The medical profession was a disorganized mess in the early part of the 20th century and the AMA was just one of many medical organizations (professional and less-so), but it fought hard for high standards and scientific procedures. Fishbein made campaigning against quacks and charlatans a life-long obsession. Brinkley, easily the most successful of the quacks came in for his particular scrutiny.

Over time, Fishbein hounded Brinkely out of Kansas, but the good doctor moved down to the Rio Grande and set up a huge "border blaster" radio station in Mexico. His scam grew larger and more lucrative and he single-handedly supported the area's economy through the Depression.

Eventually, of course, it all comes apart, but despite the terrible damage Brinkley caused to his unfortunate victims, he also, quite inadvertently, made pioneering use of the radio and advertising and he also helped popularize country/western music.

The book was pretty good. It was interesting to see how murky medical science was during the period and how thin the line between serious medical science and quackery could be at times. It also makes you wonder if stem cells or nanotechnology (touted as the future of medicine) will all turn out to be useless or worse in the future. Certainly it was an interesting read.

later
Tom

An Honest Review

Hey,

Last night I finished reading Charlatan: America's most dangerous huckster, the man who pursued him and the age of flimflam by Pope Brock. On thing I hated about this book was how vague the title was concerning the subject matter. I had no idea what it could possibly be about.

So it turns out that the book follows the career of John Brinkley a "doctor" who became very famous in the 1920's and 30's for his "goat gland" treatment. Men who had "lost their pep" would come see Brinkley at one of his "hospitals" and he'd open up their scrotum, drop in a goat testicle and sew them back up again. He was wildly successful at this, in part, because he also built and operated one of the first radio stations in Kansas to shill his products.

Eventually, Brinkley came to the attention of the AMA and it's Journal editor, Morris Fishbein. The medical profession was a disorganized mess in the early part of the 20th century and the AMA was just one of many medical organizations (professional and less-so), but it fought hard for high standards and scientific procedures. Fishbein made campaigning against quacks and charlatans a life-long obsession. Brinkley, easily the most successful of the quacks came in for his particular scrutiny.

Over time, Fishbein hounded Brinkely out of Kansas, but the good doctor moved down to the Rio Grande and set up a huge "border blaster" radio station in Mexico. His scam grew larger and more lucrative and he single-handedly supported the area's economy through the Depression.

Eventually, of course, it all comes apart, but despite the terrible damage Brinkley caused to his unfortunate victims, he also, quite inadvertently, made pioneering use of the radio and advertising and he also helped popularize country/western music.

The book was pretty good. It was interesting to see how murky medical science was during the period and how thin the line between serious medical science and quackery could be at times. It also makes you wonder if stem cells or nanotechnology (touted as the future of medicine) will all turn out to be useless or worse in the future. Certainly it was an interesting read.

later
Tom