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> In England a quack never fails unless he is untrue to himself, that is, if he be not sufficiently outrageous in his professions; let him promise and persevere
by Terr_ 2y ago
> In England a quack never fails unless he is untrue to himself, that is, if he be not sufficiently outrageous in his professions; let him promise and persevere in promising the impossible - let him screw his courage to that point and he’ll not fail; the yearly sum in advertisements alone by some of those venders of nostrums (the value of which they assert, and truly, is unknown and incredible) must be immense. [...]
> – Henry Wood – "Change for the American Notes in Letters from London to New York by an American Lady." (1843)
I feel this phenomenon is still going strong over a century later and an ocean away.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- dang 2y agoBerkeley gave up philosophy to expound the virtues of tarwater: https://brill.com/view/journals/esm/25/2/article-p173_4.xml?language=en https://brill.com/view/journals/esm/25/2/article-p173_4.xml?... (article at https://www.pismin.com/10.1163/15733823-00252p04 https://www.pismin.com/10.1163/15733823-00252p04) https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/4d89/d61ba488a87c62107ebbeb42a8c75cbd2dc0.pdf https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/4d89/d61ba488a87c62107ebbeb... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tar_water https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tar_water