'No Nose Club': The Quackish Consumption of Pox Care in Long Eighteenth-Century England.

(World History) This article explores the rise of non-institutional syphilis care in eighteenth-century England and the growing popularity of the barbershop as a centre of pox care among middle-class men. It argues that middle-class pox sufferers sought out the barbershop as a primary location of health care because of the invasive treatments offered by physicians at institutional centers of pox care – including those offered in private offices. The social stigma that was associated with syphilis also encouraged middle-class men to seek pox treatment at the barbershop, since its location in bustling downtown entertainment districts and its reputation as a place of sociable entertainment offered greater anonymity for gentlemen wanting to keep their infection a secret. On the other hand, it also allowed men to conform to sociable ideals since the barbershop offered cosmetic, as well as medical, treatment for middle-class men to mediate the visible symptoms that prevented their integration and participation in polite society. This article fills the gap in the existing scholarship that fails to comprehensively examine the barbershop as a place of pox care in the eighteenth-century. While there has been significant exploration of the relationship between pox care and institutional medical centres like the hospital and private offices in recent scholarship, there has been limited overall engagement with the barbershop as a medical centre. Even less work has been done on the relationship between the barbershop and syphilis in the eighteenth century, whereas there have been some foundational studies that explore the tropic correlation between the barber, the barbershop, and the pox. This article supplements existing scholarship with primary source materials, like medical manuals and newspaper articles, to provide a comprehensive examination of the barbershop’s role in the middle-class medical marketplace.