ABSTRACT
John St John Long was an Irishman of lowly origin whose therapeutic equipment consisted chiefly of a liniment which he declared to have a selective faculty between sound and unsound tissue. This when applied to a healthy part produced no effect, but when applied to a surface under which there might be hidden disease, it caused a sore. He undertook to cure all sorts of diseases and acquired a large practice in Harley Street, London. Nine out of every ten of his patients were women. Long eventually ended up in the dock of the Old Bailey, was fined £250 on one occasion and given the benefit of the doubt by the judge on another. However, he continued to flourish, posing as a martyr suffering persecution at the hands of the professionals, until he died in 1834 at the age of 37, refusing to the last, to be treated by his own remedies.
