The Wellcome Collection throws open its doors on Friday for an evening of "diagnoses and cures" with all manner of delightful (and not so delightful) talks and curiosities to divert you.
Take a look (and more than likely, take a wince) at treatments from the past and contribute your own home-made remedies. Chat to a Shamanic healer and watch Dr Gripenerve, late phyfic to the Emperor of Auftria, in his Victorian medicine show. Ben Goldacre's giving a talk on the placebo effect and discover alternative medicine's London roots from Roberta Bivins. There's also a quiz, between teams of practitioners of orthodox medicine and alternative theories, which we reckon might dissolve into a scrap.
The bar will be open all night selling what's described as "restorative tonics" (we think that means booze). And best of all, the whole thing won't cost you a single groat.
Quacks and Cures @ Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road, Friday 10 July; drop in any time between 7-11pm, totally free. Get more information from the Wellcome Collection's website.
