s, or the good sense to despise its revolting
indecencies. Nor is this strange, when we reflect that the reading of
even a standard medical work has a tendency to excite belief in the
reader that he is afflicted with the malady whose grim description he is
perusing. His apprehension being alarmed and his imagination excited, he
has no difficulty in detecting all or a great many of the symptoms in
himself, although at the same time none of them may exist. The quack, in
his advertisements and publications, frequently warns the reader against
quacks and quackery, as, for instance, take the following cheeky
extract:

"The object in writing these pages is to teach the public at large to
discriminate between the legitimate, duly-qualified practitioner and the
legion of charlatans who infest every important city and town of the
United States, and particularly New York. That this is a subject of the
gravest importance cannot for a moment be doubted when it is considered
that, dating from our entrance into the world, 'from the cradle to the
grave,' we too often require the valuable services of the accoucheur,
doctor, surgeon, or physician, in consequence of departing from Nature's
laws, increased state of civilization, and overtaxed condition of the
mental and bodily systems, necessitating from time to time the knowledge
and attendance of the medical man. Under these circumstances it behooves
each individual to be placed on his guard, so as to be made cognizant of
the means to detect the nefarious, unqualified, and dishonest
charlatans, in order to save the one in search of health from falling in
their meshes, and thus jeopardize the welfare of his nearest and dearest
objects. The laws of the country, public opinion, and private
information, have and are doing much to save the reputations of those
who have made choice of the medical profession, thereby exposing
themselves to be placed on a level with some with whose names we will
not soil our pages, _nor indirectly offer the advantages of publicity_,
for it has well been remarked that to be mentioned with disparagement is
to these preferable to not being mentioned at all, and thus it very
often happens that the veil to hide a motive is so flimsy that even the
uninitiated are unable to catch a glimpse at the mystery within."

Here are the strains of another disinterested Mentor in the same field,
who once had an office on West Twenty-second street in New York City:

"Coun