Book Review: Quackery - A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything by Lydia Kang ★★★⯪☆

This is a charming and funny book all about the various ways humans have promoted fake medical cures in exchange for money. Despite the grim (and occasionally distressing) subject matter, the tone remains light and poppy throughout. There are lots of snarky asides (especially about the fake medical practitioners) and a real appreciation for the bizarre. It's fun the whole way through, although sometimes at the expense of people who perhaps didn't know better than to trust charlatans. One thing that is constantly brought back is how it can be hard to determine what is patent nonsense and what is a bone fide cure: Prevent blood clotting: Extract mucus from the intestinal membranes of slaughtered pigs or from the lungs of slaughtered cows. Inject. (heparin) Is that any more believable than injecting goat testicles to cure impotence? It also brings to light how squeamish we can be, especially when faced with unusual medical procedures: We borrow other people’s wombs for surrogacy. And…