PHYSICIANS  AND  PHARMACEUTISTS  AND  THEIR  RELATIONS.  Ill 
are  the  scourge  of  mankind,  slaying  thousands ;  and  that 
never  demanded  a  single  victim,  because  they  only  exist  in  the 
brain  of  the  newly  inaugurated  doctor  and  in  his  medical  dic- 
tionary. There  you  may  find  descriptions  of  diseases  which 
might  just  as  well  serve  to  explain  the  symptoms  of  a  nervous 
headache,  an  over-filled  stomach,  or  of  consumption,  or  some 
other  lingering  disease.  The  evils  perpetrated  by  such  quacks 
are  really  uncountable ;  it  is  not  only  their  misunderstanding 
diseases  of  the  patients  who  place  confidence  in  them ;  not 
only  the  danger  arising  from  over-doses  of  medicines,  the  proper 
doses  of  which  they  cannot  recollect  or  adjust  to  a  peculiar  case, 
the  constitution,  age,  &c,  of  the  patient ;  but  it  is,  in  a  great 
degree,  also,  the  neglect  or  the  fear  of  doing  anything  at  all, 
that  may  be  productive  of  the  worst  consequences.  We  know  a 
case  that  recently  occurred,  and  is  a  striking  example  of  a  treat- 
ment of  the  latter  sort.  A  young  man  suffering  from  general 
debility  and  impotency  produced  by  excesses,  called  on  a  self- 
styled  physician  who  liberally  patronizes  the  press,  having  some- 
times two  or  three  advertisements  at  the  same  time  in  a  number 
of  the  newspapers.  The  doctor  took  to  electricity  to  cure  his 
patient,  and  ga  ve  him  a  wash  for  strengthening  the  organs,  into 
which  he  had  previously  put  the  one  pole  of  his  electric  battery, 
and  which,  on  examination,  as  the  physician  assured  us  under 
whose  treatment  he  afterwards  placed  himself,  proved  to  be 
nothing  but  clear  water.  That  the  doctor  demanded  good  pay 
for  his  professional  (?)  services  need  not  be  said. 
Such  impostors  know  how  to  do  "  business  "-—how  to  entice  the 
unfortunate  sick  to  seek  their  advice.  Besides  the  enumeration 
and  description  of  diseases,  they  promise  to  cure  infallibly  and 
radically.  They  herald  their  own  success  by  announcing  the 
number  of  patients  cured  annually,  and  of  those  who  were  recom- 
mend ed  to  them  by  the  first  physicians  of  the  country;  they 
trumpet  their  skill  by  publishing  the  thanks  of  cured  patients, 
which  are  manufactured  by  wholesale  ;  they  give  proof  of  their 
modesty  by  denouncing  all  quacks,  and  by  abusing  all  those  who 
copy  their  advertisements  in  order  to  deceive  the  public  ;  aiod 
they  are  liberal  and  charitable,  for  they  profess  to  attend  to 
poor  people  free  of  charge,  and  to  pay  particular  attention  to 
