Author(s): Geoffrey W. Rice

Canterbury & Christchurch

Quackery is simpley defined as medical practice that has no scientific basis, yet, thanks to the Covid pandemic, alternative medication and treatments are again on the rise all over the world.

Mainstream doctors have always warned against placing reliance on patient medicines, herb, homepathy, phrenology, mesmerism, galvanism, hypnosis, spiritualist, clairvoyants or faith healers. Quacks have historically been charlatans who make money from people’s hopes and fears with worthless promises of miracle cures.

Nineteenth century Christchurch had a colourful collection of quacks, both resident and visiting. Captain George Wilson was the city’s resident meserist for many years, while Joseph Ffrost was its leading phrenologist and Dr Notman its resident electro-biologist. But they had to compete with an increasing procession of visiting quacks who were as much entainers as would-be healers. Dr Carr was the most notorious of the msmerists, and George Milner Stephen the most famous of the visiting faith-healers. In the 1890s Christchurch saw a steady succession of spiritualists, hypnotists and palm-readers, all preying on the more gullible members of the public.

This book is based on exhaustic research in the newspapers of the day, not only from advertisements but also descriptions of mesmeric seances.