文︰子慧
Arsenic是砒霜，沒有人會拿來服用，除非是想殺人或自殺。Strychnine也是劇毒，通常用來製造殺蟲劑。若有醫生開這些毒物給病人，就不只malpractice(醫療失誤)那麽簡單，而是謀殺，若病人僥倖不死，也會是意圖謀殺。
不過，不久以前，醫學界經常都會開這些毒物作藥用。Lydia Kang和Nate Pedersen合著的Quackery，就介紹了醫療史上很多今天來看簡直是荒天下之大謬的藥物和治療方法。
Arsenic, “virtually undetectable”(無法察覺), was always a favorite with poisoners(下毒者). Doctors, however, prescribed it for skin problems … Another chemical, now hard to come by, was strychnine, which Hitler took to counteract(抗衡) flatulence(腸胃氣脹). It was thought to increase energy and give a sensory boost – it also caused spasms(痙攣), hallucinations(幻覺) and convulsions(抽搐).
有說：”Medicine has never been an exact science.”（醫學從來都不是完全準確的科學），醫學不斷發展，一定不斷會有新發現，一些以往做法變得落伍，或被發現根本是錯誤，也是不足為奇，但很多當年的想法和做法，今天回看，驚嚇度實在「爆表」。
Quack doctor的 quack cures
醫生做手術沒全程留在手術室掀起巨波，但若大家看看當年外科醫生的做法和技術，看法就可能有些改變：
Tickets would be sold, for example, to watch amputations(截肢手術). The 19th-century surgeon Robert Liston hacked(砍、噼) away so speedily that he once accidentally sliced off a patient’s testicles(睾丸). On another occasion he cut off the fingers of the assistant holding the patient’s leg in place during a procedure. Both patient and assistant died soon afterwards of gangrene(壞疽), and a man in the audience dropped dead from shock.
In those days, the mortality rate(死亡率) following an amputation was at least 76 per cent, though Liston probably holds the record on that one, at 300 per cent.
Quack是鴨子的嘎嘎叫聲，此字也解a person who dishonestly claims to have special knowledge and skill in some field, typically medicine，庸醫、江湖醫生，這類所謂醫生也叫”quack doctor”，而他們用的「療法」就叫”quack cures”。
人性易「上當」
書名的Quackery解dishonest practices and claims to have special knowledge and skill in some field, typically medicine，騙人的療法。今時今日醫學已十分先進，資訊也十分發達，但quackery仍然存在，信的亦大有其人，很多時後果相當嚴重，甚至致命，看看最近換血等案例就清楚。但先別批評上當的人愚昧，據Quackery書中的分析，這只是人性：
Let’s be honest. Being healthy isn’t enough for many of us. We want more – eternal youth(青春常注), perfect beauty, boundless energy(無限的精力), the virility(強壯) of Zeus. And herein the quack truly thrives.
Hindsight(事後聰明) makes it easy to laugh at many of the treatments in this book, but no doubt Dr Google has assisted you in search for a simple cure to a pesky(討厭的、惱人的) problem. None of us are immune(免疫的、不受影響的) to wanting a quick fix. A hundred years ago, you might have been the person buying that strychnine tonic.
