ANATOMY OP QUACKERY. 
165 
transaction, it would be set at rest at once by the treatment 
those men receive who have sufficient good taste to despise 
the puff in any form, and sufficient moral courage to refuse 
the charming of the puffer. The delightful villa on the banks 
of the Thames is then converted into a mansion, where the 
rooms are “ of a questionable fragrance, something between 
musty and musky;” and the stern moralist is told to “dye 
his curtains. French-polish his tables, and dry his carpets in 
the sun.” We hear no more of agreeable manners, but a 
great deal about a “ sacerdotal cut,” a “ solemn countenance, 
and unwrinkled white neckcloth and, as a warning to all 
who would rather not have anything disagreeable said of them, 
the recusant is denounced as a “ strait-laced, artificial, emas- 
culated ascetic.” 
Seriously, the puff biographical is gross quackery. It 
must be stopped. The books of beauty are circulated among 
a gullible public, and must serve one unworthy end of their 
publication, — injuring the modest, meritorious man who would 
rather starve than be looked upon as the “ literary companion 
and helpmate” of the biographers or their employers, and 
assisting the pushing man who is not afraid to increase his 
fees by advertising his Norman descent and charming affa- 
bility, even though he lose his own self-respect, and the 
esteem of all whose good opinion is worth having. 
We trust that these remarks will not be supposed to apply 
especially to Mr. Gay. He but followed the example set by 
men in a far higher professional position than himself, and he 
and they must be judged by their professional brethren, not 
by the ignorant lay committee of the lowest of our hospitals. 
— Med. Times , \Mh Jan., 1854. 
THE ANATOMY OF QUACKERY. 
Quacks flourish everywhere ! This metropolis is overrun 
with them, and every city and town in the provinces has its 
share. Even our villages are not without their freebooters in 
medicine and hygiene. The public health is compromised by 
their ignorance ; and the prospects and pecuniary position of 
individuals are, not unfrequently, injured or destroyed by 
their avariciousness and knavery. The pest of quackery, 
indeed, sits like an incubus upon the people ; and both the 
moral and physical welfare of the nation suffers for the 
aggrandisement of a few. The inroads of cholera, or the 
ravages of war, never fell with such unerring certainty, and 
xxvii. 22 
