nts unknown to botanists. But in whatever form the
response comes, the result is uniform. Plunder, always plunder, in the
first place; sometimes this is supplemented by murder; whole families
are destroyed, insanity is engendered, and the victims of these vile
knaves are driven headlong to destruction and an early grave.

It has always been the dearest wish of a quack doctor to possess a
diploma of some sort, no matter where or how dishonestly procured.
Sometimes it was forged; sometimes second-hand; but however or wherever
procured it was framed and conspicuously displayed in the "consulting"
room. By the recent and entirely wholesome amendment of the law,
however, those beguiling documents are no longer available. It is now
imperative that the certificate of every physician must be filed with
the County Clerk. Until this provision is observed, no doctor--no matter
how eminent or well-qualified--can practice in New York. Many a quack,
flourishing like a green bay-tree, was summarily brought to the "end of
his tether," by this most wise legislative enactment.

We would be derelict to the duty we owe to the public did we not here,
and in this connection, state our emphatic opinion that the editors and
proprietors of newspapers, as a rule, have hitherto looked too leniently
on this subject of quackery and its baleful announcements. Happily some
of our journals will not publish such advertisements, and no editor can
excuse himself by saying that he is ignorant of the character of such
announcements. It must be known to every man of experience that such
advertisements are unfit for the perusal of young men or women, and it
is surprising that the heads of families should permit newspapers
containing those advertisements to enter their houses. As a well-known
English author some-time since wrote:

"It is pregnant with matter for grave reflection, and this not only in
reference to patients themselves, but also in regard to the
reprehensible conduct of parents who so recklessly admit into their
family circle newspapers which insert the obscene advertisements of the
quacks. As I have said before, these advertisements are traps for their
sons and an offense to the modesty of their daughters. Well assured am I
that many cases of unaccountable suicide in youths and young men, which
cause so much surprise and misery in families, are due to these
unfortunates having become the dupes of quacks."

This is a very terrible picture