“Quack ‘o’ Rama: A Collection of Questionable Medical Devices” is now on display at the Heritage Research Center in Loma Linda University’s Del E. Webb Memorial Library. The free exhibit opened May 1 and continues through Sept. 29, 2017.
Dating from the first half the 20th century, the devices include a “Radium Ore Revigator,” a ceramic water crock lined with radioactive — yes, radioactive — materials, and the “Ultra Violet Ray” device. Each was falsely marketed to treat or prevent all manner of illnesses.
Many of these medical devices were proven to be either ineffective or unsafe and seized by the courts. Some inventors faced criminal charges.
During the 1980s, the equipment on display was turned over to the care and supervision of the late Loma Linda University professor William T. Jarvis, PhD, who dedicated himself to the fight against medical quackery in addition to his teaching duties in the Schools of Medicine, Public Health and Dentistry. He founded the California Council Against Health Fraud and co-founded the National Council Against Health Fraud.
“Every responsible individual who is sensitive to the demands of ethical conduct has a role to play in this pervasive and perverse societal problem,” Jarvis wrote in a May 1990 newsletter of the LLU Center for Christian Bioethics.
Other items in the Quack ‘o’ Rama exhibit include antique medicine bottles, a sunlamp from the Battle Creek Sanitarium, rare first editions and out-of-print books from Loma Linda University’s own Department of Archives and Special Collections and vintage snake oil posters.
The display reminds that, lest we think medical quackery is a problem of the past, health consumers must still remain vigilant against fraudulent treatments and products.
“In decades past, a combination of scientific ignorance and hope for a magical cure-all allowed quack gadgets to thrive,” said Michael Olivarez, curator of this exhibit as well as archives assistant at the Heritage Research Center. “In these modern times, a look at late-night infomercials on television shows medical quackery is still going strong.”
Those who wish to view the display may do so for free during normal business hours at the Heritage Research Center.
Keep up with the Heritage Research Center at its blog.