CORRESP ONDENCE. 



121 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



DR. PRIESTLEY. 



Messrs. Editors. 



CERTAIN facts connected with the life 

 and history of Dr. Priestley came to 

 my knowledge and recollection about the 

 time of the centennial gathering at North- 

 umberland, Pennsylvania. Had it occurred 

 to me sooner, I should have deemed it of 

 sufficient interest to those present, and to 

 the general public, to have communicated 

 these facts ; and, even now, it seems desira- 

 ble to make this record. 



When Dr. Priestley's house was attacked 

 by the mob, and he was driven from his 

 home, he fled for his life, and took ref- 

 uge with my maternal grandfather, Samuel 

 Vaughan, either at his London house (in 

 Mark Lane, or Mincing Lane), or at his 

 country-house in Hackney. For a long time 

 previous to this date he was very intimate 

 in my grandfather's family, where he was 

 received always as a loved and welcome 

 guest. At the time referred to he remained 

 an inmate of the family for a month or 

 more. My mother, who was born in Lon- 

 don, in 1766, was living with her parents at 

 the time of the riot. A strong attachment 

 had grown up between her and Dr. Priest- 

 ley. She looked upon him as a second fa- 

 ther ; and I well remember, as a boy, the 

 great pleasure with which she dwelt upon 

 the memory of their friendship. While con- 

 cealed in my grandfather's house Dr. Priest- 

 ley wrote his celebrated " Appeal." It was 

 dictated by him to my mother, she acting as 

 his amanuensis. The " Appeal " was printed 

 from her manuscript. As a memorial of 

 this event, Dr. Priestley presented to my 

 mother a brooch, made for the purpose. 

 It is a miniature likeness of himself, cut in 

 shell, on a blue background, and mounted 

 in an oval gold frame, with a scroll across 

 it near the bottom, on which is the word 

 " Appeal." This brooch is now in my 

 possession. I held it in my hand at the 

 time of the celebration, regretting that so 

 interesting a relic could not be viewed by 

 those present. Forty years or more have 

 elapsed since my mother's narration of these 

 events, and, as the present account rests 

 entirely upon the memory of my late sister 

 and myself, it is possibly incorrect in some 

 details. The main points, however, may be 

 relied upon, and as proof may be taken the 

 existence of the brooch, bearing on its scroll 

 the word " Appeal." 



T. B. Merrick. 



Gebmantown; Philadelphia, ) 

 February 24, 1888. ) 



QUACK ADVERTISEMENTS. 

 Messrs. Editors. 



Ik the March number of " The Popular 

 Science Monthly " there is an article from 

 the London " Lancet " entitled " Quackery 

 within the Profession," which, though short, 

 is certainly vigorous. The following quota- 

 tions are pertinent : 



" There can not possibly be a ' system ' 

 or ' cure ' in medicine. There are no rule- 

 of-thumb methods, and no mysteries in true 

 science. If we do not know what a remedy 

 is, and how it acts, we have no right, as hon- 

 est men, to employ it. The time has passed 

 for the working of cures by charms, and the 

 recourse to nostrums. We pander to the 

 credulity of the unskilled community when 

 we show ourselves credulous. . . . From the 

 highest places in society to the lowest ranks 

 of the people, there is just now a grievous 

 readiness to ' believe in ' quacks and quack- 

 ery. . . . There is no system, or cure, or charm, 

 or nostrum, known to the profession." 



These words are strong enough, and arc 

 properly found within the pages of a maga- 

 zine devoted to popularizing science that 

 is, popularizing it in the sense of giving the 

 unprofessional reader the latest teachings 

 of science without the rigorous processes of 

 induction leading to such results. 



The aim being, therefore, such a high 

 and laudable one, is it not somewhat incon- 

 sistent, to say the least, to find in the same 

 March number advertisements of the follow- 

 ing notoriously quack medicines and reme- 

 dies ? 



St. Jacob's Oil, Grrcffenberg's Vegetable 

 Pills, Voltaic Belts, Parker's Ginger Tonic, 

 Kidney-wort, Mrs. Pinkham's Vegetable 

 Compound, "a positive cure for consump- 

 tion," and two whole pages devoted, the one 

 to Warner's Safe Kidney and Liver Cure, 

 and the other to Compound Oxygen ? 



Such advertisements undoubtedly pay 

 well ; but should not a prosperous magazine 

 like " The Popular Science Monthly," with 

 such lofty pretensions, be above lending 

 itself, even indirectly, to countenancing 

 quackery, or doing anything to increase that 

 " grievous readiness to believe in quacks and 

 quackery " which the writer in the London 

 " Lancet " so much deplores ? 

 Respectfully yours, 



Charles E. L. B. Davis, 



Captain of Engineers. 

 Buffalo. Xeav York, February 22, 15S2. 



Captain Davis writes to the editors of 

 the " Monthly," complaining that they do 



