美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Quackery' Chronicles How Our Love Of Miracle Cures Leads Us Astray

 

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

We're going to hear now about cures involving radioactive elixirs¹, drilling holes in the head, rat poison. Yikes. What were doctors thinking? These in all manner of medical horrors through the centuries can be found in a new book "Quackery²: A Brief History Of The Worst Ways To Cure Everything." It's co-authors are journalist Nate Peterson and internal medicine physician Lydia Kang. She practices in Omaha, Neb. Welcome.

LYDIA KANG: Thanks for having me.

MONTAGNE: There was a point at which radiation was all the rage for everything.

KANG: It was. And it wasn't that long ago. In the early 1900s, Marie Curie had discovered radium. Everybody thought it was the biggest and best thing. So they put it into water, so people would drink radioactive water. It was a treatment called Radithor that was sold all over the place. People could buy their own crocks that were impregnated with radioactive compounds so that when you put water in it, you could drink your own radioactive water at home.

MONTAGNE: What were they trying to cure?

KANG: They thought that it would make them young again and give them youthful vigor³. People would take it for aching joints⁴, restoring ill health. I mean, it was all these vague complaints and problems.

MONTAGNE: The cures didn't really take, right?

KANG: Well, no. It didn't help at all because you can't actually use radium to cure hypertension or diabetes⁵ or rheumatism⁶. What happens is when you ingest radium like that, unfortunately, one of the places that the body likes to take up that element is in the bones. And so people would get bone cancers, and they would get anemias. And it was pretty deadly.

MONTAGNE: Well, you write, as an example, of this wealthy playboy who was so enthusiastic about it that he took way, way more times the amount of radiated tonic⁷ a day that he should of - died a horrible death but also was buried in a...

KANG: ... a lead-lined coffin⁸ (laughter)...

MONTAGNE: ...Because his bones were so radioactive.

KANG: Yes. Even Marie Curie's papers that she worked on - because she would carry radium around with her in her pocket - her papers are still kept and lead because they are radioactive as well.

MONTAGNE: There are all kinds of disturbing treatments for troublesome babies - teething babies...

KANG: (Laughter) Oh, gosh.

MONTAGNE: ...Crying babies, including opium⁹.

KANG: Yes. Opium was a main component¹⁰ of a lot of over-the-counter medicines that were specifically geared towards mothers and child caretakers who couldn't handle crying children. Opium was used in these elixirs to put these babies to sleep and, in some cases, killed them.

MONTAGNE: You know, Abraham Lincoln used to suffer terrible headaches. What did he take for that?

KANG: So he was taking mercury. In particular, it was something called blue mass, which was elemental mercury like that silvery, metal liquid that people used to play with when their thermometers broke. They would pound it and combine it with these good-tasting herbs. We don't know 100 percent for sure if they are completely responsible for moodiness¹¹ in him. But a lot of the information from the time tells us that he would have these mood spells. And he was taking blue mass at the time, so one does wonder if the mercury did something bad to his mental health.

MONTAGNE: Is there a story that you found particularly fascinating in writing this book, "Quackery?"

KANG: Well, I have to say that the information on cannibalism¹² and corpse¹³ medicine was probably one of my favorites because it's so particularly horrific. People would drink the blood of gladiators. Egyptian tombs were being pillaged¹⁴ for mummies so that they could grind them up into these cures. They were mixed with myrrh and spices and sold in England. And there was even an import tax at the time because there were so many mummies being imported.

MONTAGNE: And of course though, many of these really gruesome cures didn't work at all. But some of them can be used today to really do something, to really help medically.

KANG: Yes. Maybe not mercury, for instance, but arsenic¹⁵ which we think of as the poison that kings would use to kill each other - arsenic today is used as a current treatment for promyelocytic leukemia. And I think a lot of people would be pretty shocked to hear that. Opium, we know, has a long history and still exists today for good and for bad. A lot of these other things like leeches¹⁶ can be used by some surgeons to help - in post-surgical patients to, you know, reduce swelling¹⁷ so that the surgerized tissues survive. So it is shocking to find that a lot of these things still are alive and well in our pharmacopoeias and in our hospitals.

MONTAGNE: But a little more delicately used.

(LAUGHTER)

KANG: Better packaged, better studied, better understood.

MONTAGNE: Dr. Lydia Kang is co-author with Nate Peterson of "Quackery: A Brief History Of The Worst Ways To Cure Everything." Thank you very much for joining us.

KANG: Thank you so much for having me.

1 elixirs   

n.炼金药，长生不老药( elixir的名词复数 )；酏剂

参考例句：

• Elixirs are concentrated alcohol extractions that are similar to both teas and tinctures. 长生不老药是浓缩的酒精萃取物，类似于茶和酊剂。 来自互联网

2 quackery   

n.庸医的医术，骗子的行为

参考例句：

• Some scientists relegate parapsychology to the sphere of quackery. 一些科学家把灵学归类到骗术范围。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• In a famous play by Goethe, the doctor is accused of practicing quackery. 在歌德的一部著名剧目里，一名医生被指控进行庸医行骗。 来自互联网

3 vigor   

n.活力，精力，元气

参考例句：

• The choir sang the words out with great vigor.合唱团以极大的热情唱出了歌词。
• She didn't want to be reminded of her beauty or her former vigor.现在，她不愿人们提起她昔日的美丽和以前的精力充沛。

4 joints   

接头( joint的名词复数 )； 关节； 公共场所（尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所） （非正式）； 一块烤肉 （英式英语）

参考例句：

• Expansion joints of various kinds are fitted on gas mains. 各种各样的伸缩接头被安装在煤气的总管道上了。
• Expansion joints of various kinds are fitted on steam pipes. 各种各样的伸缩接头被安装在蒸气管道上了。

5 diabetes   

n.糖尿病

参考例句：

• In case of diabetes, physicians advise against the use of sugar.对于糖尿病患者，医生告诫他们不要吃糖。
• Diabetes is caused by a fault in the insulin production of the body.糖尿病是由体內胰岛素分泌失调引起的。

6 rheumatism   

n.风湿病

参考例句：

• The damp weather plays the very devil with my rheumatism.潮湿的天气加重了我的风湿病。
• The hot weather gave the old man a truce from rheumatism.热天使这位老人暂时免受风湿病之苦。

7 tonic   

n./adj.滋补品，补药，强身的，健体的

参考例句：

• It will be marketed as a tonic for the elderly.这将作为老年人滋补品在市场上销售。
• Sea air is Nature's best tonic for mind and body.海上的空气是大自然赋予的对人们身心的最佳补品。

8 coffin   

n.棺材，灵柩

参考例句：

• When one's coffin is covered,all discussion about him can be settled.盖棺论定。
• The coffin was placed in the grave.那口棺材已安放到坟墓里去了。

9 opium   

n.鸦片；adj.鸦片的

参考例句：

• That man gave her a dose of opium.那男人给了她一剂鸦片。
• Opium is classed under the head of narcotic.鸦片是归入麻醉剂一类的东西。

10 component   

n.组成部分，成分，元件；adj.组成的，合成的

参考例句：

• Each component is carefully checked before assembly.每个零件在装配前都经过仔细检查。
• Blade and handle are the component parts of a knife.刀身和刀柄是一把刀的组成部分。

11 moodiness   

n.喜怒无常；喜怒无常，闷闷不乐；情绪

参考例句：

• Common symptoms can include anxiety, moodiness and problems with sleep. 常见的症状包括焦虑、闷闷不乐和睡眠问题。 来自互联网

12 cannibalism   

n.同类相食；吃人肉

参考例句：

• The war is just like the cannibalism of animals.战争就如同动物之间的互相残。
• They were forced to practise cannibalism in order to survive.他们被迫人吃人以求活下去。

13 corpse   

n.尸体，死尸

参考例句：

• What she saw was just an unfeeling corpse.她见到的只是一具全无感觉的尸体。
• The corpse was preserved from decay by embalming.尸体用香料涂抹以防腐烂。

14 pillaged   

v.抢劫，掠夺( pillage的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• They are to be pillaged and terrorised in Hitler's fury and revenge. 在希特勒的狂怒和报复下，他们还遭到掠夺和恐怖统治。 来自辞典例句
• They villages were pillaged and their crops destroyed. 他们的村子被抢，他们的庄稼被毁。 来自辞典例句

15 arsenic   

n.砒霜，砷；adj.砷的

参考例句：

• His wife poisoned him with arsenic.他的妻子用砒霜把他毒死了。
• Arsenic is a poison.砒霜是毒药。

16 leeches   

n.水蛭( leech的名词复数 )；蚂蟥；榨取他人脂膏者；医生

参考例句：

• The usurers are leeches;they have drained us dry. 高利贷者是吸血鬼，他们吸干了我们的血汗。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Does it run in the genes to live as leeches? 你们家是不是遗传的，都以欺压别人为生？ 来自电影对白

17 swelling   

n.肿胀

参考例句：

• Use ice to reduce the swelling. 用冰敷消肿。
• There is a marked swelling of the lymph nodes. 淋巴结处有明显的肿块。