utable
career of gambling, died in poverty at Venice, in 1729.

Thus this enormous business-humbug first raised a whole nation into a
fool's paradise of imaginary wealth, and then exploded, leaving its
projector and many thousands of victims ruined, the country disturbed
and distressed, long-enduring consequences, in vicious and lawless and
unsteady habits, contracted while the delusion lasted, and no single
benefit except one more most dearly-bought lesson of the wicked folly of
mere speculation without a real business basis and a real business
method. Let not this lesson be lost on the rampant and half-crazed
speculators of the present day. Those who buy gold or flour, leather,
butter, dry goods, groceries, hardware, or anything else on speculation,
when prices are inflated far beyond the ordinary standard, are taking
upon themselves great risks, for the bubble must eventually be pricked;
and whoever is the "holder" when that time comes, must necessarily be
the loser.

V. MEDICINE AND QUACKS.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

DOCTORS AND IMAGINATION.--FIRING A JOKE OUT OF A CANNON.--THE PARIS EYE
WATER.--MAJENDIE ON MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE.--OLD SANDS OF LIFE.

Medical humbugs constitute a very critical subject indeed, because I
shall be almost certain to offend some of three parties concerned,
namely; physicians, quacks, and patients. But it will never do to
neglect so important a division of my whole theme as this.

To begin with, it is necessary to suggest, in the most delicate manner
in the world, that there is a small infusion of humbug among the very
best of the regular practitioners. These gentlemen, for whose learning,
kind-heartedness, self-devotion, and skill I entertain a profound
respect, make use of what I may call the gaseous element of their
practice, not for the lucre of gain, but in order to enlist the
imaginations of their patients in aid of nature and great remedies.

The stories are infinite in number, which illustrate the force of
imagination, ranging through all the grades of mental action, from the
lofty visions of good men who dream of seeing heaven opened to them, and
all its ineffable glories and delights, down to the low comedy conceit
of the fellow who put a smoked herring into the tail of his coat and
imagined himself a mermaid.

Probably, however, imagination displays its real power more wonderfully
in the operations of the mind on the body that holds it, than anywhere
else. It is true