The so-called 'quack' physician and apothecary, William Salmon, is thought by many to be behind the salacious and outrageous 'Aristotle's Masterpiece' originally published in London in 1684. After the modest success of the first version sold by How, it eventually became a storm both sides of the Atlantic available in new editions from 1697 to the 1930s. There is no evidence to connect Salmon directly to the project despite the poem in his name, and, like Aristotle, it was most likely a bookseller's attempt to market the work more effectively by association with the popular medical writer. The book is today best know by its signature frontispiece of the hairy woman and the black infant.

The best discussion of this unproven connection between Salmon and the Masterpiece will feature in Jonathan Barry's upcoming biography of Salmon.

"For on this Subject there is none can Write,
(At least so well) as that Great Stagyrite."