ny Irish families find all their provisions in this way.

LXXVIII. QUACK DOCTORS.

Carlyle's savage description of the people of England--"Eighteen millions
of inhabitants, mostly fools"--is not applicable to his countrymen alone.
It may be regarded as descriptive of the world at large, if the
credulity, or to use a more expressive term, "the gullibility" of men is
to be taken as a proof that they are "fools." Many years ago a
sharp-witted scamp appeared in one of the European countries, and offered
for sale a pill which he declared to be a sure protection _against
earthquakes_. Absurd as was the assertion, he sold large quantities of
his nostrum and grew rich upon the proceeds. The credulity which
enriched this man is still a marked characteristic of the human race, and
often strikingly exhibits itself in this country. During the present
winter a rumor went out that a certain holy woman, highly venerated by
the Roman Catholic Church, had predicted on her death-bed, that during
the month of February, 1872, there would be three days of intense
darkness over the world, in which many persons would perish, and that
this darkness would be so intense that no light but that of a candle
blessed by the Church could penetrate it. A Roman Catholic newspaper in
Philadelphia ventured to print this prophecy, and immediately the rush
for consecrated candles was so great on the part of the more ignorant
members of that Church, that the Bishop of the Diocese felt himself
obliged to publicly rebuke the superstition. This credulity manifests
itself in nearly every form of life. The quack doctors or medical
impostors, to whom we shall devote this chapter, live upon it, and do all
in their power to encourage it.

There are quite a number of these men in New York. They offer to cure
all manner of diseases, some for a small and others for a large sum. It
has been discovered that some of these men carry on their business under
two or three different names, often thus securing a double or triple
share of their wretched business. The newspapers are full of their
advertisements, many of which are unfit for the columns of a reputable
journal. They cover the dead walls of the city with hideous pictures of
disease and suffering, and flood the country with circulars and pamphlets
setting forth the horrors of certain diseases, and giving an elaborate
description of the symptoms by which they may be recognized. A clever
physician