be applied with the hope of benefit; and perfectly certain that
the weakness of human nature, from which no profession is exempt,
will lead him to take the most flattering view of its effects upon the
patient; his own sagacity and judgment being staked upon the success of
the trial. The inventor of the Tractors was aware of these truths. He
therefore sent the Tractors gratuitously to many clergymen, accompanied
with a formal certificate that the holder had become entitled to their
possession by the payment of five guineas. This was practised in our
own neighborhood, and I remember finding one of these certificates,
so presented, which proved that amongst the risks of infancy I had to
encounter Perkins's Tractors. Two clergymen of Boston and the vicinity,
both well known to local fame, gave in their testimony to the value
of the instruments thus presented to them; an unusually moderate
proportion, when it is remembered that to the common motives of which
I have spoken was added the seduction of a gift for which the profane
public was expected to pay so largely.

It was remarkable, also, that Perkinism, which had so little success
with the medical and scientific part of the community, found great favor
in the eyes of its more lovely and less obstinate portion. "The lady of
Major Oxholin,"--I quote from Mr. Perkins's volume,--"having been lately
in America, had seen and heard much of the great effects of Perkinism.
Influenced by a most benevolent disposition, she brought these Tractors
and the pamphlet with her to Europe, with a laudable desire of extending
their utility to her suffering countrymen." Such was the channel by
which the Tractors were conveyed to Denmark, where they soon became the
ruling passion. The workmen, says a French writer, could not manufacture
them fast enough. Women carried them about their persons, and delighted
in bringing them into general use. To what extent the Tractors were
favored with the patronage of English and American ladies, it is of
course not easy to say, except on general principles, as their names
were not brought before the public. But one of Dr. Haygarth's stories
may lead us to conjecture that there was a class of female practitioners
who went about doing good with the Tractors in England as well as in
Denmark. A certain lady had the misfortune to have a spot as big as a
silver penny at the corner of her eye, caused by a bruise, or some such
injury. Another lady, who was a friend