112  PHYSICIANS  AND  PHARMACEUTISTS  AND  THEIR  RELATIONS. 
those  recommended  to  them  by  other  physicians.  It  is  astonish- 
ing how  bold  a  face  they  are  able  to  put  on. 
But  their  is  another  set  of  quacks  known  better  to  the  publitc 
than  the  class  before  mentioned ;  we  mean  the  numerous  pro- 
prietors and  originators  of  patent  medicines.  There  seems  to  be 
a  perfect  mania  all  over  the  country  for  "  inventing  "  and  intro- 
ducing new,  never  heard  of  nostrums,  which,  to  make  them  valu- 
able, are  often  called  such  barbarous  names  as  to  render  a 
proper  pronunciation  highly  difficult.  We  will  not  attempt  to 
depict  the  means  used  for  introducing  and  keeping  them  before 
the  public,  to  expose  the  folly  of  an  attempt  to  cure  lots  of  dis- 
eases by  one  and  the  same  remedy,  or  to  reduce  the  whole  phar- 
macopoeia to  a  half  dozen  preparations  which  would  cure  any 
disease  the  human  frame  is  subject  to.  A  number  of  these  nos- 
trums have  gone  to  the  dead,  and  we  sincerely  wish  all  the  living 
ones  may  soon  follow'them.  We  could  not  suppress  a  pitying 
smile  the  other  day,  on  reading  an  article  written  expressly  for 
the  defence  of  patent  medicines.  The  manufacturer  of  secret 
medicines,  it  was  said,  certainly  put  something  of  efficacy  in  it, 
but  not  in  sufficient  quantity  to  do  harm,  even  after  a  continuance 
for  some  time ;  he  pays  large  amounts  to  the  press  for  adver- 
tising, printing,  &c.  ;  in  short,  he  is  a  benefactor  of  mankind. 
The  nostrums  are  calculated  to  be  family  medicines,  and  as  there 
are  nostrums  that  cure  every  thing,  and  hundreds  for  each  class 
of  the  different  diseases,  the  attendance  of  a  physician  is  quite 
unnecessary ;  one  quack  of  this  sort  cures  more  patients  in  a 
week  than  many  physicians  in  a  year.  Their  medicine  is  "re- 
commended by  the  faculty,"  and  their  boldness,  of  course,  is  the 
best  proof  of  its  efficacy,  notwithstanding  the  promulgation  of  a 
Tolume  of  testimonials  from  persons  that  sometimes  never  lived, 
and  the  numerous  cases  in  which  the  nostrum  had  no  effect  at  all, 
or  made  the  sickness  worse  than  ever. 
The  question  of  quackery  in  its  two  forms  is  certainly  an  im- 
portant one,  and  the  proper  way  for  its  suppression  is  still  open 
for  discussion.  The  wealth  accumulated  by  the  shrewd  manu- 
facturer; the  money  they  can  spend  for  hiring  an  unscrupulous 
press,  or  using  the  advertising  space  of  the  honest  and  conscien- 
tious press ;  the  position  in  society  attained  by  some  quacks  :  the 
fame  of  some  as  practitioners  before  turning  to  quackery ;  the 
