Snake oil, hustlers and hambones: the American medicine show

This book is an informative and entertaining history of the American medicine show. The first chapter briefly describes the European antecedents of the medicine show, such as Italian mountebanks, and the rest of the book traces the evolution of the institution in America from colonial times to the twentieth century. These shows ranged in size from a single performer to large-scale wild west or variety shows, but in each case the purpose was the same, to use some form of entertainment to lure potential customers and encourage them to buy the medicinal products on sale. Mostly these products were typical patent medicines of the period, whether home brewed or purchased from pharmaceutical manufacturers. Anderson's book provides a lively and largely accurate introduction to the subject for the general reader. It will be of less interest to scholars in the history of medicine because it is drawn very heavily from secondary sources, such as James Harvey Young's Toadstool millionaires (1961) and Brooks McNamara's Step right up (1976). While she does make use of autobiographical memoirs written by medicine show performers and owners, such as Violet McNeal's Four white horses and a brass band (1947), Anderson does not cite any manuscript sources in her notes or bibliography. Anderson is an actress, and her profession is reflected in the book, which is long on the entertainment aspects of these shows and short on the medical aspects. Its strength is in the detailed and fascinating accounts of the "show business" side of the trade, and in her efforts to relate the performances of the medicine shows to the broader history of American theatre. Readers who are more interested in the patent medicines themselves, and less in the entertainment, are better advised to consult the classic studies of James Harvey Young on the subject. The book contains some minor errors and inconsistencies, but no more than might be expected in an account of such broad scope. For example, Elixir of Sulfanilamide (which caused over a hundred deaths in the United States in 1937) was not diethylene glycol, but contained the latter as a solvent. Also, Anderson's contention that Elixir of Sulfanilamide was a prescription drug can be challenged, since the Food and Drug Administration had no legal basis for classifying drugs as "prescription only" before the passage of the 1938 Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. On the whole, however, this is a very readable book which, although not contributing much that is new to scholarship in medical history, provides a useful overview of the interesting phenomenon of the American medicine show.