328 
MR. HAYCOCK ON IIOMCEOPATHY. 
a few among regularly educated professional men. But this 
is not to be wondered at, for every kind of quackery and 
empiricism, no matter how absurd, finds numerous adherents. 
From the good old times of the elixir vitae, to the days of 
spirit-rapping, Holloway’s pills. Major’s British remedy, and 
Homoeopathy, hundreds of false systems have imposed upon 
the gullibility of mankind. And so it will ever be; for as 
Southey has well said, “man is a dupeable animal, and 
quacks in medicine, quacks in religion, and quacks in politics, 
know this — and live upon the knowledge of it.” In an 
interesting paper on ‘ Mormonism,’ in the last number of the 
c Edinburgh Review’ (April, 1854, p. 377), we find the 
following statements, which supply a most satisfactory ex- 
planation of the origin and spread of Homoeopathy. “ It 
may be laid down as an axiom that every impostor may at 
once obtain a body of disciples large enough to form the 
nucleus of a sect, provided he be endowed with sufficient 
impudence. This is true not only of religious empirics, but 
of all speculators on human credulity. What quack ever 
failed to sell his pills, if he mixed them w ith a proper quantity 
of mendacity ? The Homceopathist, the spirit-rapper, and 
the phrenologist, each attracts his clique of believers. All 
this is only an illustration of the Hudibrastic maxim, — 
* Because the pleasure is as great 
In being cheated, as to cheat.’ ” 
The motives w-hich actuate men zealously to disseminate those 
errors which they have themselves embraced, are thus ably 
set forth in the c Medical Gazette’ for 20th January, 1843. 
There is, observes the writer, “ a strong inclination in man- 
kind generally to assist in propagating an imposition to which 
they have themselves yielded ; both because it makes them 
objects of interest to the public, and because it appears to 
justify them in having given their confidence.” 
Like other Homoeopathists, Mr. Haycock w T ill probably 
endeavour to assert the superiority of his dogmas by setting 
aside all technical and scientific objections to them, and 
appealing triumphantly to the results of his practice. But 
such results, however satisfactory, are, as I have already said, 
by nomeans sufficient to establish the efficacy of Homoeopathy. 
They merely show that many of the diseases of horses, as of 
men, arrive at a safe and speedy termination when subjected 
to judicious hygienic treatment. I have elsewhere suggested 
the only means by which the true value of Homoeopathy as 
a mode of cure can possibly be ascertained ( Veterinarian , 
April, p. 222). Writing of practice reminds me that Mr. 
