The dangerous quack remedy of Bleeding or Bloodletting dates back to classical antiquity, circa 400 BCE, when ideas of Hippocrates were used to justify the bleeding of any seriously ill patient, to "restore balance of the humors." Evidence of the practice is actually found much earlier, for example in ancient Egypt. It was revived in the Renaissance when classical literature of ancient Greece and Rome became available again, was the standard medical treatment for any disease or ailment in the era 1500 - 1900, and can still be found as a variation of Cupping, even today.

Animal Magnetism, or healing with the use of permanent magnets, was invented by Franz Mesmer (1734 – 1815) in about 1775. He tried treating diseases by stroking the patient with a bar magnet. His varying degrees of success led him to formulate the doctrine of Animal Magnetism, and in his personal treatments of patients he afterward used his "personal magnetism" to stroke the patients with his bare hands. To treat large groups of patients, he placed magnetized iron filings in salt water in a big tub, and placed L-shaped iron rods coming out of the tub in locations where patients could touch the rod to afflicted body parts! Mesmer's successors usually used visible magnets, stroking the supposed afflicted parts in the original way. The modern wrinkle on this sad pseudoscience is to attach a small magnet to the body with adhesive tape, but stroking is still common!

The earliest scientist to evaluate this healing method was Benjamin Franklin himself! To the French Academy of Sciences, Franklin reported that Mesmer was a run-of-the-mill faith healer, and that his patients were fooling themselves. Since these days, no role for permanent magnets in healing or treatment of disease has been discovered. Mesmer is also usually credited with having discovered the semi-pseudoscientific phenomenon of hypnosis, which used to be called Mesmerism in his honor.

Osteopathy began with a claim that all diseases were due to (imaginary, invisible) dislocations of bones of the spine, and that the diseases could therefore be cured by pressure and manipulation of the spine, to force it back into the correct alignment. Historically, osteopaths used incredibly violent methods to do this, and severe injury sometimes was done to patients. As osteopathy evolved, joint manipulation also became common, and all recommended manipulations became usually very mild, involving very slight pulling, or rubbing, or just a firm touch. Osteopathic universities also broadened their training to include all sorts of medical support specialties, such as dermatology. As a result, quite a few health care professionals have D. O. degrees, but do not practice any version of osteopathy.  Chiropractic began as a variation of traditional osteopathy, and has not directly evolved into a more benign form.  Chiropractic is today one of the most commonly encountered forms of medical quackery, and practitioners have divided into two  very different groups, the "straights," who practice the traditional Palmer version, and "mixers," who include many other forms of quackery, from crystal healing, to acupuncture, to "food healing," to meditation!

The left hand-image shows the traditional cure for impotence, in traditional osteopathy!

A modern wrinkle in osteopathy is cranial osteopathy, which claims to fuse the separate segments of the upper skull by gentle touch! Particularly recommended for tiny infants!