4 ms·

RTFA: > The glowing element was hailed as a panacea for everything from blindness to hysteria. Literally the second paragraph.

• kwhitefoot 9y ago
  Hailed by whom? That sentence is immediately followed by: > "No medicine, no drugs," raves one ad Note the word ad. So most of the hailing, possibly all, was in advertising copy. The article mentions advertising and marketing several times but makes no convincing case that those without a financial interest in selling the goods believed the claims. And quite likely most of those selling the products didn't believe them either; many were just the latest in a long line of quacks selling snake oil and neither knew nor cared if it worked or not, it was just a cool name to attach to product.
  • lstyls 9y ago
    Your comment was, "Did anyone ever believe such a thing?" Again, from the article: > One particularly disturbing medical innovation was the "Radiendocrinator," a device the size of a thick stack of credit cards to be worn with an adaptor "like any 'athletic strap.'" Its inventor, who fervently claimed to use the product, later died of bladder cancer. The inventor used the product, and presumably so did the poor people consuming the quack products. Prevarication doesn't change the logic here.