AT: What’s the central thesis of the exhibit?
WHH: The basic thesis is that up to 150 years ago if you went to a doctor or a quack, there was not much difference in what happened to you. After 150 years, now medicine has become more advanced, to the point where now you’d be stupid to go to a quack.
AT: How would you define a quack?
WHH: What is a quack? It’s in the eye of the beholder. Nobody labels themselves a quack – they say you are a quack, not I am a quack. It’s not a label you impose on yourself.
AT: Do you blame the quacks, or the quack’s patients for following them?
WHH: I don’t blame anyone for trying to sell them [the quack's "cures"]. But I blame people for listening. It’s like people listening to politicians and believing them.
[AT & WHH go on a walk through the exhibit itself. What follows is select commentary by WHH on different sections of the exhibit.]
On Morrison: Morrison was British but his cure was sold in the US and was popular here. It sold as long as they put advertising money behind it. Once they stopped advertising, it died.
On Mariani: Mariani was a self-styled patron of the arts. He sold wine with cocaine in it. He commissioned artists to do illustrations showing bottles of his “medicine.”
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