No, Not the CDC – But Minnesota Medical Quackery & Frauds

Thoughout life you will always hear people stating that certain doctors are "quacks" or that certain medical practices are "snake oil" or "useless" or "fraudulent". And I'm not actually talking about the CDC and the pandemic.  these are things that were around WAY before that situation.

Check this out - there used to be a whole museum in Minnesota called the "Museum of Quackery and Medical Frauds".  I mean, an actual museum of these crazy items.

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That museum was closed down in 2002, unfortunately.  But - they were then moved over to the Science Museum.  And a special place was created within that museum called "Questionable Medical Devices".

Check out some of these things that are quite literally laughable.

This compilation of bizarre medical inventions includes a foot-powered breast enlarger called the Allure Bust Enlarger, a shoe x-ray machine, a prostate warmer, and a mind reader that gauges your intelligence, morality, and personality by measuring the size of bumps on your head!

We look at these things today and wonder how in the world anyone would have thought that these things would work.  But - it was definitely a different time and people just believed some crazy things.

Apparently these types of devices were shown at the State Fair in the early 1900s.  And there were more - and some of them were somewhat dangerous.

Claims that snake oils and pseudoscience gadgets could cure problems such as impotency were often made. However, unsupervised use of the items turned out to be dangerous for those who were manipulated into trying them.

If you have some time on your hands and looking for something to do, check out the exhibit at the Science Museum in St. Paul. It's fun to look at a lot of the other things in this museum anyway, plus, you can check out the Omni Theatre while you're there.