Quacks

I finished a fascinating book on Sunday afternoon: Charlatan, by Pope Brock. It's the story of Dr. J.R. Brinkley, who, throughout the decades of the 20's, 30's, and 40's, was America's most dangerous quack. He killed dozens of people--mostly men--through the implantation of goat testicles. Yes, that's right...hundreds, nay thousands of men offered themselves on the altar of his vile ministrations and had goat testicles implanted (actually dumped) in their scrotums or rib cages in order to restore their virility and vigor.

Brinkley was also a pioneer in the use of mass media to run for political office (he would have been elected governor of Kanses in a landslide if the write-in votes had counted--and many think he could have been elected President based on his popularity) and he knew how to use urban legend, marketing, and mass appeal to the base religious desires of Americans to earn more than a million dollars a year selling colored water as prescription drugs.

What's equally amazing is that we still live in a culture where men, especially, pursue the fountain of youth through the use of steroids, HGH, and other so-called sexual enhancers. Women don't fare much better.

As a teen, I had goats, and I still wonder what might have been had Brinkley been around in my day. Think of it, with Brinkley's help, I could either be dead today, or enjoying life as one of the most virile men in America!