Vol. XVI n. 



SEPT. 1, 1690. 



No. I 



TERMS: «1 00 Pek ANNUM IN Al>VANCK; 1 V' i>4- r,l.l T .^Tn n /I I'-n 7 5?'^'? f Clubs to fiifferent postofficos, NOT I.K88 

 2(;'opie>.for81.90; 3tor*2.7f>:5for$4.00; I Cifil (.11) I IS llf Ih I li JO t O. | th.-in 90 ots. each. Sent pustpaid, in the 



10 or more 7S,:t.s HK.-h. Sm^ie nur., \ pvbi.ishkd skmi-monthlt bt Tl'-.S- »"/ Tanadas. To all other coun- 



Der. Sets. AflrtiiioMM to ehihs in a v be tnes of the Universal Postal Union, 18 



made at elub rates. Above are all to ^ / n/l/lT li^l C D I M A nUI/l ''*>< per year extra. To all countries 



be sent to ONE posTOFFTCK. )n. I. nUUI, iriLU/lVri, (//7/l/. I NOT of the UP. U. 42 cts. per year extra. 



SELLING SECRETS, ETC. 



I)I{. ('. C. MII.LKI! (ilVICS ITS SOMK FAf TS FKOM 

 THE STAXDPOIXT OF A PHYSICIAN. 



Friend Root:— It is so many years siiicp I had 

 any thing to do with the practice of medicine 

 tliat I hai'dly count myself one of tiie medical 

 [n-ofession: hut I think I can help you a little to 

 und<'i'stand why little or nothing is said hy 

 them about what you evidently consider a tit 

 subject for ventilation — the Dr. A. Wilford Hall 

 matter. In the first place, his case does not 

 stand out as i)i'i)minently to their minds as it 

 does to yours. Ii is only (mi' of a hundred. In- 

 deed, in some respects it is of a better type tlian 

 common: for at a guess I should say that in 

 many cases thi' man who pays ?4 for the secret 

 gets the worth of his money, or at least is not 

 harmed by it. I have just now j)icked up the 

 tii-st religious pai)er that comes to my hand — 

 and it is one of the best of its class — and looking 

 at its advertising columns I tiiid a medicine 

 offered as a sure cure for consumption. I very 

 much doubt whether any one ever was or ever 

 will lie cured of coiisumi)tion by this medicine: 

 and I suspect that it may do harm in a gi'eat 

 many cases, where the Hall treatment will not. 

 These things are common. You .s(>e them every 

 day. and every day the people are paying out a 

 good many four dollars for things worse than 

 the Hall business. If a physician should try to 

 expose every thing of this kind he would liave 

 his hands full: and. moreover, people would say 

 he had an ax to grind in so doing. (Jood honest 

 people are found in plenty who believe in such 

 things, and i-esent any word said against them. 

 A somewhat similarca.secame within my knowl- 

 edge in the sphere of bee-keeping. A certain 

 party had been doing a business of .some extent, 

 .selling at ?:.'() a colony of b(>es not worth half 

 that, and othei- things as bad or worse. I felt 

 that something ought to be done to prevent 

 people being defrauded, and I wrote some very 

 idain words about it for an influential publica- 



tion. Would you believe that the good editor, 

 with mi.sdirected charity, squelched the thing, 

 saying that he thought the party was doing 

 better — a kind of " bettei'" that every thief uses 

 wlio changes his tactics whenev<'r it makes him 

 safer from detection? Perhaps Dr. Hall will do 

 better— take $3 instead of $4 whenever he thinks 

 he can make more by so doing. 



15ut there is another I'eason why physicians 

 don't say any thing against Dr. Hall: and that 

 is. they don't know any thing about his treat- 

 ment. Every one who gets the secret agrees to 

 keep it: and. liowever strongly I may think Dr. 

 Hall a humliiig. if I don't know positively what 

 his treatment is I am not wise to say any thing 

 about it. I rec(Mved from him an oftVr of the 

 secret, practically free, on condition of my 

 keeping it secret, and I suppose it is his tactics 

 to ott'er it in the same way to all physicians. 

 This heli)s to kee]) their nniuths shut, and some 

 among them will act as "agents," thus increas- 

 ing his I'eceipts. 



1 admire your pluck, friend Root, in attacking 

 error: and whilst there will always he those 

 who are anxious to be humbugged, I suspect 

 vour woi'ds mav l)e the means of saving to soin« 

 theii- four dollars. , V. C. Mili.f.I!. 



Marengo, 111., Aug. 1(1. 



Friend M., very likely yon are riglit. This 

 makes the matter sadder still. Is it inde<>d 

 true, that the people of our naticm— those whi) 

 are out of health, and possibly tho.se who are at 

 the same time overworked — are continually 

 investing vast sums of money for something 

 that does no good whatever, and oftentimes, as 

 you state it, a positive liarm? Why can't our 

 experiment stations furnish some facts for the 

 people out of health, just as they have furnished 

 facts to tin' farmer who has been in the lial)it of 

 paying over his hard earnings to quacks and 

 swindlers? It seems that this matter of medi- 



