As long ago as the Roman occupation of Britain, according
to a " medicine stamp " which was recently discovered, a " Golden Ointment to clear the sight " was sold by a quack called Junianus to his patients of Bath, probably much the same Golden Ointment as is still advertised to-day. Mr. C. J. S. Thompson's The Quacks of Old London (Brentano's, 12s. 6d.) is full of amusing and interesting information of this kind. In the Middle Ages there was no distinction between the regular practitioner and the quack; but in the reign of Henry VIII. an Act was pissed regulating the medical and surgical professions in order to suppress quack practitioners. This Act does not seem, however, to have been very effective for during the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries —in fact, up to the present day—these dangerous charlatans have continued to ply their trade. The stories of their lives and particularly of their ingenious advertising methods are entertaining reading.
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