history of medicine

[wetherall]

why are doctors called quacks

[tartanwiz]

Originally a quack meant a false doctor or an unqualified person practicing medicine, deriving from 'quacksalver'. A quacksalver (from the Dutch 'quacken' to prattle, and 'salve', a healing ointment) was a person who went around selling useless medicines claiming that they were miraculous cures.