instructed to perform the operation on his
own person.

"Wer't not for laughing, I should pity him."

This, then, is the Halstedian treatment!

The former rules of quackery, reduced to the administration of sundry
pills or elixirs, must be abandoned in favour of the manipulating and
scouring process of the great medical wizard of the day, who relieves by
a tap, and cures by a flat-iron; and although it may be difficult to
conceive the chain of ideas by which the imagination can connect the
bumpings of a stage-coach with the operations we have described, we may
exclaim,--

"Your art
As well may teach an ass to scour the plain,
And bend obedient to the forming rein,"

as cure dyspepsia; still, we must yield our admiration to the novelty of
invention, and to the ingenuity of application of these stomach and
bowel working wonders.

It unfortunately happens sometimes, that the dyspepsia is connected with
inflamed stomach, in which case the _punching_ practice is death. We
have heard from eminent physicians, that several lives have, within
their knowledge, been endangered by it. Moreover, the real indecency of
the Halstedian process, particularly in the case of women, has greatly
shocked even the medical observers.

Before we dismiss this book from actual review, we will devote a short
space to its probable effect upon the public, and upon the best means of
counteracting its tendency.

Man, like a child, is amused by a novelty, and "tickled by a straw." His
"reason too often stoops not" to inquiry before a ready surrender, and
what is least comprehensible will occasionally receive the readiest
credence: bare assertion is admitted without proof, the rhodomontade of
enthusiasts passes for gospel, and the "leather and prunella" of
impostors are regarded as commodities of sterling value. No wonder,
then, that success attends a certain race, who are willing to prey upon
the infirmity of reason; that the mountebanks of former days are
emulated by the quacks of the present time; that Mr. Halsted has met
with abundance of patients, and a ready sale for his work: a hope of
relief from disease acts as a stimulant to faith, but "Hope is a
cur-tail dog in some affairs."

It is said of Dr. Cameron, one of the most remarkable charlatans of his
day, that when reproached by a physician concerning his deception on the
public, he replied, "Out of twenty persons who pass this house in an
hour,