We have featured a few articles about patent medicine, snake oil, quackery,
and dangerous cure-alls from the past. Those stories make us feel
thankful to be living in the present, where modern medicine is working
miracles. In 1881, the Dutch society Vereniging tegen de Kwakzalverij
(VtdK), translated as The Society Against Quackery, formed to fight the
unscientific hucksterism that promised cures for a small fee. All these
years later, the society is still doing that work!
The
VtdK formed around the same time that modern medicine began to be
professionalized in the late 1800s. According to a history on the
Society’s website, the Dutch Society for the Advancement of Medicine,
which was founded in 1849, was having trouble policing the unlicensed
and unqualified medical practitioners of the day. In an effort to raise
awareness of the growing number of quacks operating in the Netherlands,
they published a pamphlet in 1878 detailing how to identify a quack, and
what to do about them. From this initial bit of literature, the Society
Against Quackery was born.
But the more things
change, the more they stay the same. The society its still in business,
still fighting bad medicine! Read about
their history, their work, and what they are doing today, at Atlas Obscura.
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