‘Hoodwinked’ Offers a Strange Glimpse Into (Awful) Victorian Eye Care

If you’ve heard of Paul Bragg, it’s likely because you’re a fan of Bragg Liquid Aminos, the soy-based flavoring favored by vegans. Back in the 1920s, though, Bragg was a traveling salesman shilling holistic cures for human ailments. One such item was the Better Sight Vibrator: a wooden stick with spiral ridges down its length and a small cup on top. Bragg instructed people to hold the cup over their eyes and run a piece of wood along the length of the stick to create vibrations.

Promotional materials for the vibrator asserted:

The inventor of the Better Sight Vibrator at one time did aerial and juggling acts … From these, he learned when his eyes tired from reading or deciphering intricate drawings, doing some juggling tricks would relieve his eye strain. After much research and experimenting, the Better Sight Vibrator and a set of exercises were developed.

Needless to say, the object was entirely useless and, in 1935, Bragg was arrested and charged with practicing medicine without a license. (His pivot into vegan condiments was clearly much more successful.)

The Better Sight Vibrator is just one of the antique ophthalmology-related objects currently on display at San Francisco’s Museum of the Eye. Its new exhibit Hoodwinked: 19th Century Quack Medicine gathers other such devices, some of which made the preposterous claim to correct poor eyesight entirely.

One 1920 pamphlet by Doctor* Wesley M. Barrett [*not a doctor] declared that his specific system of eye training could cure every eye condition known to man as long as it wasn’t related to a specific disease. These included “such eye troubles as nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism, old-age eyes, weak eyes, undeveloped eyes, eyestrain, squint and various eye muscle troubles, including cross-eyes.”

The pamphlet went on to state:

The greatest crime of this age, against old and young alike, is the wholesale fitting of glasses for functional disorders and inharmonies of the eyes. The generation that witnesses the adoption of the principles and practice of the Natural Eyesight System in the schools of the land will also witness the passing of ‘The Age of Spectacles.’

The contraptions on display at the museum include suction cups, massagers, eye-rinsers that resemble tiny goblets and one so-called “coagulating” machine that claimed to use electricity to infuse eyes with oxygen and ozone. One small, metal, cylindrical object manufactured by William C. Wilson was advertised as a cure-all for deafness, loss of sight and loss of smell. In reality, the “Actina” was a cone filled with oil of mustard and sassafras that would irritate the senses to no objective end.

You might be wondering how and why people were willing to give such devices the time of day at all. And the answers lie elsewhere in the museum. Eye doctors at the turn of the century used some brutal instruments on people’s eyeballs in the course of their treatments. One “artificial leech” on display, dating from 1890, is a silver instrument that ends in a series of small spikes. Faced with the prospect of a supposed professional sticking multiple needles in their eyes, it’s no wonder people turned to quacks instead.

One of the more delightful elements of Hoodwinked is the art on display. Beautifully rendered, hand-painted anatomical diagrams can be seen in books dating all the way back to 1838. The Victorian artwork used to promote fraudulent “sight restorers” is also a marvel — the 19th-century equivalent of girls in movies who suddenly become desirable the second they take their glasses off.

Hoodwinked as an exhibition is small but mighty, though I do wish there were even more artifacts on display. What is here will make you feel nothing but gratitude for modern medicine. And the Better Sight Vibrator? Well, that’s something that has to be seen to be believed.

‘Hoodwinked: 19th Century Quack Medicine’ is on view at San Francisco’s Museum of the Eye (645 Beach St.) through spring 2025. Entry is free.