Lacking the dust jacket. Covers with some light soiling, else a near fine copy. This catalog accompanies an exhibition on medical quackery, tracing its prevalence from the itinerant seller of nostrums four centuries ago to unsolicited spam on the Internet today. Prints by William Hogarth, Honoré Daumier and others highlight the theatrics of the quack at work; posters by Jules Chéret, Maxfield Parrish and their contemporaries illustrate the remarkable artistry with which proprietary medicines once advertised; and works by H.G. Wells, Weir Mitchell and other writers offer a delightful look at the elaborate language once used to promote the quack's wares.

William H. Helfand is the author of five books including Pharmacy: An Illustrated History (co-author David Cowen, Harry N. Abrams, 1990), and The Picture of Health, (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991) as well as a number of articles on the history of pharmacy, and on prints, caricatures, posters and ephemera relating to pharmacy and medicine. In recent years, he has curated several exhibitions on prints, drawings and photographs relating to pharmacy, dentistry and nursing in the Ars Medica Collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.