112 THE ITINERANT HORSE PHYSICIAN 



If there is a quack in practice who, when he 

 gets a case which he cannot diagnose, will frankly 

 tell the owner so, I have not yet seen or heard of 

 him. Every one of them whom I came in con- 

 tact with will treat any case you bring them, and 

 will continue to treat the case as long as you 

 allow them to do 30, or until the patient dies. 

 Cases which get well under their treatment, get 

 well, with few exceptions, in spite of their treat- 

 ment and not because of it. 



I may seem a trifle too severe on quacks and 

 quackery, but I tell you that half the quacks in 

 practice today should be in jail. The other half 

 should be hung. I can prove it. I call to 

 mind an instance which gives a fair illustration 

 of the integrity of some of these fellows. On a 

 certain day a cotton farmer brought a mule to a 

 certain quack in Abilene for the purpose of 

 having his teeth floated. After examining the 

 mouth this horse-doctor gave it as his opinion 

 that the teeth were not much out of order, but 

 that he would float them anyhow, and then give 

 the mule a pill. He thought the pill would do 

 the work alone, but to make sure he would float 

 the teeth a little. 



The farmer took his mule home after this had 

 been done, and as he did not seem to improve a 

 particle, he sent the mule in again with a neigh- 

 bor, a week later. The quack having forgotten 

 what he told the farmer the first time, now told 

 his neighbor that the mule had the worst set of 

 teeth he ever saw, and then he floated them again. 

 When the neighbor got the mule home and told 



