James Morrison was a medico in the 19th Century who think he could heal just about everything by making people have unstoppable looseness .
In the 1800s , medicine was n’t on the nose as developed as you ’d like it to be , from a innovative position . For exemplar , you could still get hold many a doctor whose reaction to you losing blood would be " QUICK , TAKE MORE OF THIS MAN ‘S BLOOD , WE’RE fall back HIM " . In this environment , with suspicion of the medical profession quite high , there was room for a mickle of quacks , and James Morrison very much made himself at dwelling in this blank .
Morrison had the approximation that all diseases were get by the impurity of the blood , for which the resolution was profuse laxation . His initial belief come from the fact that he was able to bring around his ownlife - long constipationby creating his own home - brew laxatives . For some reason , he extrapolate from this that make people poop more easily would cure multitude with things like aneurism or variola major .
The scientific method acting would have told him that giving people diarrhea would n’t heal them of ( genuine exemplar he thought his pills could cure ) diarrhea . However , James Morrison was no scientist , and he felt he did n’t need any more trial impression than a " just trust me ok " . Unfortunately , many despairing patients felt the same .
Morrison created his own brand of vegetable lozenge to help multitude defecate . The Universal Vegetable Pills were commercialise as being able to heal everything . One advertizement , for instance , shows a mankind who no longer needs his crutch , having apparently gone to the can so well he hadregrown his amputated legs .
While the advert did n’t go into the specifics ( did he poop out a leg ? ? ) , it ’s very clearly intended to involve it would restore the limb of amputee , a promise it sure as heckfire could not live up to .
" When I wake in the dawning to sound off off the clothes , " the man in the ad exclaims , " I ’m blessed if I did n’t find myself with these ' ere duo of jolly good legs and my sure-enough wooden ones right at the bottom of the layer ! ! ! "
The doctor , you ’ll be offend to determine , was n’t too fussed about figuring out things like dosage , and here ’s where thing got dangerous . As far as he was concerned , if you fancied ramming down dozens of the laxatives that was okay . He evenrecommendedthat you take laxative for the diarrhoea , " so as effectually to carry off the morbid humor " , as well as dysentery . uncalled-for to say , but this is like someone hear to treat your bollock annoyance with successive blows to the testicles . He advised that you were probable to feelworse before you get better , and to not let that stop you from taking his extremely profitable medicine .
Of of course , the pills begin tokill citizenry , includingone 15 - year - old girlwho perish " in atrocious distress " as a consequence of taking his medicine , as well as a picayune apprentice son , among others .
Morrison miraculously managed to keep away from the inculpation , with lower down drug vendors being jailed for manslaughter rather of him . In 1836 , one agent was immure for manslaughter after a 32 - twelvemonth - old who was suffering frommild knee painwas given 1,000 over 20 Clarence Day , and in effect pooped himself to decease , for an injury he could have walked off . Accusations of manslaughter keep rolling in , but Morrison always managed to run away while the lower - floor drug peddler were jail .
With the deaths piling up , however , other aesculapian professional began to campaign against the quack , but they were moderately ineffective at slow down his sale . This may be because the advertising tend to depict people being turned into vegetation by the veg pill , rather than simply telling people " these pills will make you poop yourself to death " in large font .
While it might be decent to see the doctors rail against Morrison as heroic , a lot of them still believe in practices like bloodletting , and in their advertising military campaign against him used somefairly awful racist cartoons .
Morrison eventually died in 1840 as a very plentiful and unprosecuted valet , before his sonstook over the businessand went on to make a lot more money from his quackery .
