QUACKS AND THE REASON OF THEM. 825 



passing by," the quack said, "do you suppose are sensible per- 

 sons ? " " Six or seven," said the doctor. " I will give you ten of 

 them for your clients, the rest are mine." This is not compli- 

 mentary to four fifths of the human race. 



I believe that we can explain how even educated and intelli- 

 gent people can place credence in the virtue of strange remedies 

 and the knowledge of absolute ignoramuses. Medicine is not, as 

 is commonly said, the art of healing ; it is the art of usually miti- 

 gating and sometimes healing. There are too many incurable 

 diseases, or those which become so with age, by fatigues of all 

 sorts, or by excess, for a doctor to be able to pretend to do any- 

 thing but soothe and reduce the pains. A patient afflicted with 

 such troubles can not bring himself to believe that he is con- 

 demned without remedy ; and he will at any price try the possible 

 and the impossible in the hope of finding a cure. The im potency 

 of medicine as against his trouble induces the unhappy man to 

 cast himself in time into the hands of any quack who can insinu- 

 ate himself into his confidence. " My remedy is infallible," the 

 quack will tell him ; " try it." The spirit grows weak and gives 

 way under the suffering that tortures and yields not ; the animal, 

 we might say, resumes its rights ; and the patient abandons him- 

 self to one who will promise a wonderful cure without reserve. 

 Then there have been wonderful cures. At the time when little 

 was known or knowledge was imperfect about nervous affections, 

 so curious, various, and manifold in their manifestations, what 

 seemed like resurrections, almost miracles, sometimes took place. 

 Such facts are satisfactorily explained now, but they were for- 

 merly astonishing and surprising. The crowd hurrahed as over 

 a prodigy, and gave absolute confidence to it. It could not be 

 otherwise. Whatever may happen, there will always be credu- 

 lous people and always men disposed to deceive them. Translated 

 for the Popular Science Monthly from La Nature. 



A CLASS in botany, under the direction of Prof. Charles E. Bessey, 

 formed a part of the Colorado Summer School at Colorado Springs last 

 summer. The city is situated at the foot of Pike's Peak, and within easy 

 reach of the vegetation of the plains, the canons, the foothills, and the 

 strictly Alpine regions. The numerous brooks and mountain streams sup- 

 plied an abundance of aquatic forms, while the damp canons furnished all 

 kinds of fungous growths. Lichens, mosses, and ferns were plentiful, so 

 that every section of the vegetable kingdom was well represented. The 

 course included lessons on the structure, physiology, classification, and dis- 

 tribution of plants ; the lower water plants, the degenerated plants, the 

 mossworts, and the naked arid covered seeded plants. The work was di- 

 vided into an elementary and an advanced course. The attendance, exceed- 

 ing one hundred, was mainly composed of teachers of maturer years, in all 

 departments of school work. 



