“My poverty and not my will consents.”
Cautions respecting amber spectacles have frequently appeared in the daily newspapers. On the 17th of April, 1838, the “Sun” contained a long advertisement, lauding their extraordinary virtues. In the same page, followed an exposé of the puff; and in another part of the paper was the following paragraph, made to appear as the editor’s remarks:—
“An advertisement appeared in our paper of the 9th instant, calling into question the merits of patent amber spectacles, which have been so highly recommended for the preservative and assisting qualities for defective vision, by men of high character and professional reputation. The names of Messrs. Dollond and Curtis being used, it is right that the public should be apprised of the ascertained fact, that it owes its insertion, not to the knowledge of those gentlemen, but to the personal pique of interested individuals.”
Persons who are somewhat acquainted with the manner in which such paragraphs are got up, well know what importance is to be attached to them; the uninitiated, however, are led to suppose that Messrs. Dollond and Curtis were not of the opinions expressed, but that some of the trade, jealous of the advertisers’ “high character,” had maliciously questioned the “superior refractive property,” “light modifying,” “cool,” and “soothing” attributes of the admirable amber. But what ought we to think of the professional and literary characters who countenance the system of fraud and delusion practised by puffing advertisers. We might in charity suppose that the signatures of those eminent persons were surreptitiously obtained; and in that case, the straight-forward course they ought to adopt, should be publicly to disavow all connection with the cheats. But if they really hold the opinions attributed to them, we are bound to declare that, opposed as such idle notions are to truth and common sense, their presumption is ridiculous in publishing opinions on a subject of which they are grossly ignorant—ay, grossly ignorant! however capable and popular they may be in their own professions. Indeed many names of able and skilful surgeons are enumerated in the list of patrons and testimonial writers, who would smile at the effrontery of self-dubbed opticians, and the credulity of the public, conscious that they had no pretensions to any superior acquaintance with the subject. The ingenious and talented Dr. Neill Arnott remarks, in his “Elements of Physics,”—“Will it be believed that there are medical men who neither understand mechanics nor hydraulics, nor pneumatics, nor optics, nor acoustics, beyond the merest routine; and that systems of medical education are put forth at this day, which do not even mention the department of physics or natural philosophy;”
But a general diffusion of knowledge is changing the condition of society, and elevating the human character. At first we almost tremble at our own boldness, in demanding proofs of the capability of our teachers; but the mind, gathering power, and unfolding its strength, with every opportunity for its manifestation, insists on having positive proofs, rather than vague pretensions, and demands solid information, instead of empty nothingness, however gorgeously arrayed, or pompously introduced.
FOOTNOTES:
[6] As for operators on the teeth, they have multiplied exceedingly in the land. Their successful career is a biting satire on the credulity of their supporters.
American Quackery.—The cost for advertising quack medicines in the United States, annually, is estimated at 200,000 dollars. A peck of pills per day is considered necessary for Boston, and half a bushel for New York. On an average, only one in twenty-five who take them is actually sick; and the proportion of those dispensing with some necessary of life to purchase nostrums, which do them a positive injury, is in the ratio of eighty-seven to every one hundred throughout the country.
[7] Dr. Petit found the crystalline in the eye of a man eighty years of age so yellow as to resemble amber.
“When exposed to heat it becomes soft, swells, bubbles up, is apt to take fire, and burns with a yellowish flame.”—Heron’s Chemistry.