Fakers of Science 53 
abstinence. Also it is known that several of the chemical compounds 
commonly found in ground waters have a pronounced effect (some- 
times a wholesome one, if taken in correct quantities) upon the di- 
gestive apparatus. Add to this the psychology of illness and health 
and you have the case. The waters of a given locality are advertised 
as of a curative nature, the chemist’s analysis is published, together 
with a statement of the physiological effect of each constituent named, 
and a health resort is established. 
Some people suffer from poor health because of overwork (although 
the number of such is really not as great as we often like to believe), 
some from wnder-work and great numbers think they are ill when they 
are not (or are ill because they think they are, which perhaps amounts 
to about the same thing’). These in addition to the people who need 
more water to drink, as already explained, and to those who chronically 
disobey most of the rules for caring for their bodies. Induce these 
folk to believe that a peculiar water from the bowels of the earth, 
found only in certain famous wells, is the long-sought fountain of 
health, if not even of youth, persuade them to go to this health resort 
for a season and a cure is almost certain. They are placed in the 
hands of skilled dietitians who cause them to eat sensibly and to drink 
abundantly,—of other attendants who look to it that they shall bathe 
and exercise regularly and properly,—and the entire atmosphere is 
made pleasant and cheering. Under the circumstances Nature gets 
her opportunity and the patient is cured. The cost, in money, has been 
rather high but it was worth it, wasn’t it? 
This is all very fine and it is probably true that a cure as the 
result of deception is better than no cure at all. But I am dogmatic 
enough to believe that education is better than deception, cure or no 
cure, and that in the long run it will have a better effect upon the 
health of our people. The thing that the patient did not understand 
was that rest, recreation, correct diet, drinking sufficient water (plain 
monoxide of hydrogen), frequent bathing and rubbing and pleasant 
thoughts were the cause of the cure, when he innocently considered 
them mere necessary evils,—and that the mineral content of the water, 
which he understood to be the curative principle, was only so much 
bosh and clap-trap, an adjunct to the main business. He could have 
practiced proper eating, drinking, bathing, etc., at home but did not 
understand that they were necessary or important. He could have 
bought at the corner drug store, for twenty-five cents, as much min- 
eral salts as was contained in a thousand gallons of the water he 
drank, but knew neither this fact nor that the salts themselves had 
no appreciable effect upon him because of their very small concentra- 
tion, and that they were therefore unnecessary to the success of the 
treatment. (Please note that I am not here discussing the so-called 
“mineral waters” that are found bottled on the market, consisting of 
ordinary ground waters “fortified” by the addition of quantities of 
laxative salts.) 
And now let me attempt to justify the statement that education 
is preferable to deception, science to fake, by reminding you that where 
one sufferer is cured by this benevolent deception, a thousand others 
