166 
ANATOMY OF QUACKERY. 
with such calamitous effect on society, as do the operations 
of charlatanry and empiricism. Morbific, rather than curative, 
they injure where they should afford succour, and destroy 
where they should build up. We earnestly implore a just 
legislature to put a stop to the career of these marauders, and 
to protect our families and countrymen, and future genera- 
tions from the blight of their vile doings; and to wipe from 
the character of our government the degrading blot of 
complicity with quackery. We most earnestly desire that 
England shall no longer be sneered at by the inhabitants of 
Continental nations as the “ paradise of Quacks” and that the 
qualified practitioner in this country, as elsewhere, shall 
receive that protection, and that encouragement and patronage 
in return for his assistance, which his skill and qualifications 
so constantly deserve. 
If the observer has been surprised at the astonishing 
development of quackery in London, he will be equally 
surprised at the extent of its ramifications in the provinces. 
No city, town, nor village, is too insignificant for its ap- 
propriation and spoil. In the smaller places, and in thinly- 
populated localities, as well as in the purlieus of many of our 
larger towns, the common quack is too poor and humble to 
assume the airs of the aristocrat, or the appearance of the 
millionaire. On the contrary, he is generally “ an ignorant 
drudge, ripe for anything,” and merely superadds “doctoring” 
to some other trade or calling, for the purpose of “eking out” 
an otherwise too scanty livelihood. In many instances, he 
is the veterinarian farrier, or horseleech of his village. In 
some cases he is a “sugar baker,” and luxuriates in the 
manufacture of “toffy” and “lollipops,” which he sells, 
together with w r orm-cakes and corn-plasters, at the neighbour- 
ing markets and fairs. Sometimes he is a “wholesale vendor 
of everything,” and embarks in the sale of castor oil, epsom 
salts, and medicinal herbs, for the sake of doing “a little 
smarter business.” At first, he merely sells the remedy w T hen 
it is asked for; next , he both advises and sells it; lastly , 
he seeks patients, and prescribes his own nostrums. 
He now commonly gets “doctorized” by the simpletons w ho 
pay him for his disservices. At length his ear becomes so 
habituated to the lie, that he adds M.D. to his name, and 
dreams that he deserves it. In a few^ years he also appends 
M.R.C S., or some other equally high-sounding initials, and 
positively declares that he is a “ matriculated member of the 
University of Dougham,” “Consulting physician to the 
Court of Kamtschatka,” and “ sole lithontripist to her Majesty 
Queen Pomare.” He is now, perhaps, able to get a decent 
