They could help you with: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018palpitation of the heart, asthma, bronchitis, gout, rheumatism, liver complaints, indigestion, lumbago, neuralgia, paralysis, general debility, cold feet, &c, &c, &c\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n You could buy them direct from Mr Stubbs\u2019 Grocer and Meal Dealer, in Market, Place, Richmond (Yorkshire). Where the MacDonalds\u2019 manager would give you a free consultation (from 10.30am to 2.30pm on Saturdays).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or from the \u2018permanent address\u2019 of 10 Duke Street, Darlington, where the free consultations ran from 10am to 7pm every day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n They also had premises at 37 Roper Street, Whitehaven and sold through Tom Marr’s grocery shop at 10 Castlegate, Penrith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or you could buy a magnetic appliance by post, and have it sent postage-free anywhere in the UK. The ad says it\u2019s important to enclose your waist measurement. Oddly, perhaps, it doesn\u2019t say what the price is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just as firms today ask customers to review their purchases, so firms in the 1880s sought customer endorsements to back up their claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The advert for Messrs MacDonalds\u2019 Improved Magnetic Appliances is endorsed by letters from Shropshire, Lancashire \u2013 and several from Cumberland and Westmorland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’m not going to list every Cumbrian who endorsed the magnetic appliances, as there a lot of them, across time and publications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n John Crosby<\/strong>, a farmer of Breaks Hall, Appleby, had derived great benefit from wearing an appliance for rheumatism. While \u2018Mrs C\u2019 had found the Magnetic Belt and Lung and Nerve Invigorator had relieved her liver complaint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thomas Blackburn<\/strong>, of 95 Ennerdale Road, Cleator Moor, had been using an appliance for nine months and was now able to enjoy and digest his food, after six years of suffering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n William Hewitson,<\/strong> a farmer from Bridekirk, near Cockermouth, was now back at work after two years of being unable to follow his employment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And William Eubank <\/strong>(sic) of Hackthorpe, a shepherd at Lowther Castle, wouldn\u2019t be without his Best Belt for any money, as it had ended all pain from his rheumatism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those are all pretty tame. I mean, in terms of telling the world about your medical issues (the actual efficacy of the products is another matter altogether). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Others to back the product include: Thomas Moore of Blennerhasset (gardener to Sir Wilfred Lawson of Brayton Hall); Mrs M Brown, of Rose Cottage, Nethertown, Maryport; T Chambers of Christian Street, Harrington; and; Isaac Huggins, of the Sun Hotel, Crosby Ravensworth, who said his little daughter’s bronchitis had been cured by the Lung and Nerve Invigorator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then we come to John Hogarth, of Knowe Farm, Plumpton, and to; John Airey, of Scales Farm Threlkeld, and to; Robert Bell, another farmer, of Ellercow, near Hunsonby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018My wife was a great sufferer for number of years from Indigestion and General Weakness. The attacks sometimes were so severe she confined her bed for together\u2026\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n But then the Aireys decided to give the best Belt Lung Nerve Invigorator a trial, and they were delighted with the result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018My wife is better in every way, eats well, sleeps well, <\/em>is better fitted for her household duties\u2026<\/em><\/strong>\u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n \u2018My wife suffered very much for long time back from Bronchitis and other pains that at times she could scarcely walk about with difficulty breathe at all;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018in<\/strong><\/em> fact she became almost useless in looking after household affairs..<\/em><\/strong>\u2019<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Luckily, she got a Belt and Lung Invigorator, she \u2018became greatly benefited and present free from those excruciating pains\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Robert Bell was glad such a valuable invention had been discovered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, we come to John Hogarth. Not just patronising about his wife\u2019s \u2018place\u2019 in life, but also sharing details I\u2019m sure she\u2019d rather have kept private.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, I discovered the advert in the first place after taking photos in St John\u2019s Churchyard, Plumpton, and looking doing a search on some of the names. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018My wife strongly was recommended about three years ago to try your Magnetic Belt and Nerve Invigorator.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n \u2018At that time <\/em>she had loss of appetite, lifting wind from stomach, palpitation of heart and great weariness and often a depressed feeling for two years before<\/em><\/strong>\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n \u2018but trying your valuable appliances she soon received great benefit <\/em>and now can eat well and attend all her household duties and is a new woman<\/em><\/strong>.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n I hope any descendants reading this aren\u2019t offended by the above, because there is a sad side. Which is, of course, that the Messrs MacDonalds\u2019 Improved Magnetic Appliances were trading on people\u2019s desperation for cures. And any \u2018benefits\u2019 were likely just a placebo effect.<\/p>\n\n\n I\u2019m not going to go into the history of this pseudo-science, but the idea that \u2018magnetic forces\u2019 could cure ailments first popped up in ancient Greece and has continued to do so since. While scientists who\u2019ve investigated have never found any evidence it works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sadly, the Plumpton gravestone shows that Frances Hogarth died in January 1889, aged 55.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The local papers reported that she had been \u2018ailing for some time\u2019 but had been cheerful when she went for a short walk. On her return, she collapsed and died, it was thought from heart disease. Which seems to fit her symptoms from the advert three years earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1881, Robert Bell of Ellercow is on the census as 49, with a wife called Rachel, who is 48.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1891, Robert was 56 and his wife was Ann just 35. They had a three month old child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Rachel Bell died in the spring of 1887, aged 52, which doesn\u2019t fit being 48 six years earlier. But then Robert only aged seven years in ten (possibly because his new wife was so much younger). Given that Robert did have a new wife and baby by 1891, it would seem his first wife, too, hadn\u2019t received that much relief from the \u2018belt and lung invigorator\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the case of the Crosbys of Breaks Hall, \u2018Mrs C\u2019 (Mary) is on the 1891 census, aged 64. But her husband John had died in May 1890, \u2018having been in failing health for some time.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n John Airey, of Scales, AND his wife Sarah, were on the 1891 census, aged 56 and 54.<\/p>\n\n\n\n William Ewbank was 54 and an ag lab, no longer a shepherd. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I couldn\u2019t find Thomas Blackburn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1890, the Darlington main address of the Macdonalds was registered to a John Hindson, timber merchant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The best that can be said about the Messrs MacDonalds\u2019 Improved Magnetic Appliances is that hopefully they didn\u2019t do any harm to users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And that in 1885\/86, there was probably nothing better on the market those users could have taken to alleviate or cure their illnesses or conditions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Magnetic appliances in 1880s Cumbria tell us a lot about the limits of real medicine, and about how women were viewed in society… A few years ago, my son gave me a book that mixes hilarity with \u2018did that REALLY think like that?\u2019 horror. It contains pictorial adverts from mostly 20th Century newspapers and magazines, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3080,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[136],"tags":[47,480,481],"class_list":["post-3079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-medicine","tag-appleby","tag-plumpton","tag-threlkeld"],"yoast_head":"\nGreat faith in magnetic appliances<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The Cumbrian endorsements<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
John Airey\u2019s endorsement<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Robert Bell\u2019s endorsement<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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John Hogarth\u2019s endorsement <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The serious side<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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