these people actually existed as presented in print by Mrs. Dr. Keck. However, in over a thousand ads that survive to be studied today, less than a hundred different individuals are named, and there is no way to verify the facts presented about their illnesses, particularly the accuracy of the diagnoses, and there is no way to know for sure what percentage of her thousands of other patients did and did not get cured. Regular allopathic medical practice during the 1870s and 1880s often involved "heroic" treatments with harsh, mineral medications containing lead, mercury (calomel) and arsenic, as well as toxic vegetable compounds containing strychnine, castor oil (derived from ricin), belladonna and other poisonous substances we would consider extremely dangerous today. Clumsy, unsanitary surgical procedures were also common, so it is not impossible that Mrs. Dr. Keck's herbal tonics and sensible nursing advice were actually better for her patients than the regular doctors' remedies in some cases. It is unlikely that Mrs. Dr. Keck ever hurt anyone. Alert opponents in the medical profession would have been quick to pounce on any provable instance if she had ever actually harmed a patient with her treatments. While a number of outright quacks were taken to court by angry patients seeking reparations for botched treatments in Davenport during the years she practiced, no such accusation against Mrs. Dr. Keck shows up in the public record. The only parties who sued her during her career were male doctors with M.D. credentials. In every instance, they were seeking to solidify institutional boundaries for their evolving practice of allopathic or scientific medicine by first preventing her from getting a license and second by preventing her from practicing medicine without one. No evidence that she harmed a patient was ever produced in any of these cases. Bibliography Beatty, William K. M.D. (1991) "John H. Rauch—Public Health, Parks and Politics" in The Proceedings of the Institute of Medicine of Chicago Volume 44 Bres, Rose Falls (1918) Maids, wives and widows: the law of the land and of the various states as it affects women. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co. Clarke, James Frederic, M.D. F.A.C.S. (Dec. 1934 to Dec. 1935) "A History of Medicine in Jefferson County Iowa," The Journal of the Iowa State Medical Society (published serially) Ehrenreich, Barbara and Deirdre English (1973 and 2010) Witches, Midwives & Nurses The Feminist Press at the City University of