Q 



is the seventeenth letter of our 

 alphabet. The symbol was de- 

 rived from the hieroglyphic pic- 

 ture of a knee ( see ALPHABET ) ; 

 this was taken over by the 

 Phoenicians as the letter qoph, 

 which became koppa among the 

 Greeks. Among the Ionian 

 Greeks it was disused as a letter 

 before the middle of the 5th century B.C., keeping 

 its place only as a numeral. It was retained for a 

 while in the Dorian alphabet, lingering longest on 

 the coins of Corinth. On the coins of Syracuse it 

 was replaced by /. about 480 B.C. In the Italian 

 alphabet, which was obtained from Greece before 

 the letter was disused, the symbol was appropriated 

 for the favourite Latin sound of the velar guttural 

 kw. The letter q is absent from the Anglo-Saxon 

 alphabet, in which the sound was expressed by 

 cw, as in cwen for queen, and cwic for quick. It 

 makes its appearance about 1160, and at first was 

 only used for Latin or French words, such as quarter 

 or quarrel. Before the close of the 13th century it 

 was adopted in genuine English words, such as 

 i/niilm, quell, quick, and queen. In Scotland it 

 replaced hw, as in qulutt for hwat (what). In 

 English it is always followed by u. 



Quack Doctors. Medical quackery is a pro- 

 duct of all countries and of all ages ; it flourishes 

 among civilised and uncivilised communities alike, 

 and was as rampant before the Christian era as it 

 is in our own day. At all times it has found a 

 numerous public ready and willing to be gulled, 

 and this not only among the illiterate and vulgar, 

 but even specially among the higher and better 

 educated classes. In many cases royalty itself has 

 set the fashion by lending its patronage to notorious 

 charlatans. An exact definition of what constitutes 

 medical quackery is not easy to give. The term 

 'quacksalver,' in use in the 17th century for quack 

 doctor, seems to be derived from the Dutch kwak- 

 zalver ( Ger. quacksalber), meaning a person who 

 praised loudly his own medicines or methods of 

 cure. The first part of the word is derived from 

 the well-known but unmusical note of the duck, 

 and typifies the hoarse blatant tones in which 

 itinerant medicine vendor^ are accustomed to laud 

 their wares. The equivalent French term is 

 Charlatan, derived from the Italian c-iarlare, 'to 

 chatter ' ( Lat. circulars ; circulator, ' a pedlar or 

 irwntebank') a name which also indicates their 

 characteristic and persistent loquacity. In more 

 ancient days the loquacity and persistence were 

 verbal ; now they are both verbal and literary, as 

 is shown in the deluge of advertisements with 

 which medical quacks Hood the world. 



Quackery may be taken to include all devices 

 whether practised by legally qualified medical 

 practitioners or by those who have had no recog- 

 nised medical training which tend to deceive the 

 public by disseminating false ideas of disease, or a 

 belief in imaginary ailments, which vaunt certain 

 medicines or methods of treatment as panaceas or 

 cure-alls, or which attribute to an individual a 

 su|MTnatnral or exceptional power of influencing 

 and curing disease. The element of pecuniary gain 

 397 



or of personal vainglory also comes into a definition 

 of quackery, as opposed to the singleness of purpose 

 and devotion to the interests of the patient which 

 are traditionally held to be the guiding principles 

 of the orthodox practitioner of medicine. Perhaps 

 the most amusing description of quacks and their 

 methods has been given by Goldsmith in his Citizen 

 of the World, and it is as tnie and as trenchant to- 

 day as it was then. He says : ' Whatever may be 

 the merits of the English 'in other sciences, they 

 seem peculiarly excellent in the art of healing. 

 There is scarcely a disorder incident to humanity 

 against which they are not possessed with a most 

 infallible antidote. The professors of other arts 

 confess the inevitable intricacies of things, talk 

 with doubt, and decide with hesitation. But doubt- 

 ing is entirely unknown in medicine ; the advertis- 

 ing professors here delight in cases of difficulty ; 

 be the disorder ever so desperate or radical, you 

 will find numbers in every street, who, by levelling 

 a pill at the part affected, promise a certain cure 

 without loss of time, knowledge of a bedfellow, 

 or hinderance of business. When I consider the 

 assiduity of this profession their benevolence 

 amazes me. They not only in general give their 

 medicines for half value, but use the most per- 

 suasive remonstrances to induce the sick to come 

 and be cured. Sure there must, be something 

 strangely obstinate in an English patient who 

 refuses so much health upon such easy terms." 



The Sieur de Courval, writing in '1610, gives a 

 lamentable account of the way in which France, 

 Germany, and Italy were overran with medical 

 quacks in his day. He deseril>es them as being 

 apostates, vagabonds, disgraced clergy, women of 

 loose character, and rascals of all kinds, and says 

 that they are more dangerous to mankind than 

 vultures, for the latter devour only the dead, while 

 the former prey upon the living. Cadet de Gassi- 

 court, classified quack doctors in a whimsical manner 

 in groups, families, and species, of which the follow- 

 ing is an abridgment. Circulatores : Insects, very 

 venomous, of the order of suckers ; common every- 

 where, found in all countries and all latitudes. Their 

 external characters are very varied. Some have 

 brilliant elytra, velvety, and studded with gold ; 

 others have them more coarsely formed, dull, not 

 entire, and marked with rents. Their intestines 

 have an enormous capacity, the heart is wanting 

 or very small ; they attack man exclusively, their 

 stings being always injurious and sometimes mortal. 

 The sting is sometimes very evident, sometimes 

 quite hidden or little apparent. He divides them 

 into two great groups, the Circulatores Phanero- 

 rhynchi, or peripatetic quacks who practise in 

 public, and the Circulatores Cryptorkynchi, or 

 Charlatans en Chambre. The latter are described 

 as ' the charlatan of the aristocracy, of the bour- 

 geoisie, and of those who do not wish to be seen 

 consulting him in public. This honest son of toil 

 is imbued with a sense of his own importance, his 

 language is sententious, he speaks witn assurance, 

 ana is lodged luxuriously. He is often a specialist," 

 and so on. These two groups are further largely 

 subdivided, and an amusing description given of 

 each species. 



