Human Physiology. 49 



getting money and goods by false pretences; swindling; for- 

 gery ; theft ; burglary ; robbery with violence ; robbery by 

 threats of infamous charges ; frauds of sham companies ; sham 

 benevolent societies ; begging impostures ; robberies of enor- 

 mous fees ; robberies of pawnbrokers, leaving shops, money- 

 lenders, and all the criminal cormorants who prey upon the 

 weakness and misfortunes of others. More detestable than 

 these are the crimes of lust; the corruption of children 

 and the young by immoral and shameful publications ; the 

 seduction of innocent and helpless girls, especially of servants 

 in families, and girls who work for a living; trade in prosti- 

 tution, criminal assaults, rapes, abortions, infanticide, unnatural 

 crimes. 



Lying in trade is all but universal ; lying and deception are 

 very common among servants and workmen. We have cheat- 

 ing in materials, cheating in work, cheating in charges. In 

 plumbing and house repairs there is habitual and systematic 

 robbery. Bakers adulterate our bread; brewers put coculus 

 indicus into our beer ; wine-dealers sell us poisoned decoctions; 

 grocers mix burnt sugar and roasted liver with our coffee ; our 

 milk is watered, or worse; our clothes are shoddy; our furni- 

 ture falls in pieces ; our houses are sham carcases, cracking 

 and splitting in every direction ; sham drains connect with no 

 sewer, or, from their bad construction, poison us with noxious 

 gases. Quacks are ready on every side to poison us with their 

 nostrums; and regular physicians combine with apothecaries 

 to drench us with medicines, and run up heavy and needless 

 bills. Undertakers are not the least remorseless of the cor- 

 morants that devour us. 



Thousands not only lie and cheat, but have no scruple at 

 perjury. In all our law courts we have sets of trained wit- 

 nesses swearing point blank against each other, and not in one 

 case in a hundred are any temporal pains and penalties ever 

 inflicted. The Divorce Court is a hideous public exposure of 



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