HUNGRY VULTURES. 9$ 



of finding it more easily in other spheres of work ; but 

 being men of modest desires, and having no craving after 

 mere worldly aggrandisement or display, they preferred to 

 keep to the path they had chosen. They have expended in 

 the cause of sanitary science and in the practical develoj>- 

 ment of new sanitary inventions enormous sums of money 

 not less we are informed than one hundred thousand pounds 

 during the past fifteen years. 



A successful invention is invariably followed by a host of 

 imitations. Like hungry vultures the greedy plagiarists 

 hover around to prey upon the inventor's brains and pluck 

 a dishonest living at his expense. It would have been an 

 extraordinary exception to the rule if the subject of this 

 memoir and his son had escaped from the persecution of 

 these selfish and ravenous opponents. That they were not 

 so fortunate is evident from the numerous contrivances 

 which have from time to time been put forward to impose 

 upon the public being "got up" to resemble externally 

 as nearly as possible the " Air-Pump Ventilator." 



These people would not be worth notice but for the 

 lamentable injury they inflict on a good cause. They foist 

 utterly useless apparatus on innocent purchasers, and 

 bring discredit upon sanitary science. Fortunately these 

 adventurers have generally a very brief existence, and they 

 disappear into that region of obscurity from whence like 



