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, nineteen are fools who come to me, whilst the one wise man applies to you—which has the better practice? Believe me, doctor, that although the wise seek the wise in your person, the fools will find me out." How exactly is this assertion fulfilled in the present day! The wise man, who values his health as his greatest earthly blessing, scorns to resign it to the care of one who knows not the value of the trust; who cannot comprehend the principles upon which it depends, the cause which deranges it; or discover the particular organ requiring assistance: common sense interposes a bar to any communication between a wise man and a charlatan; while the multitude will flock to the snare, or swallow the bait; first the gulls, and then the victims; the nostrums, injurious or poisonous as they may be, find ready mouths for their reception; the dogmas, willing ears; and the system of Mr. Halsted, ready sufferers. Is it not to be lamented, that a man who claims a caste above this multitude, will sometimes forget himself so far as to follow their route, heedless of the lines of Horace?—
"When in a wood we leave the certain way
One error fools us, though we various stray."
He madly leaves the track of reason to tread in the steps of folly; but he may perhaps retrace them, and if an injured, yet a wiser man. Not so the generality,—they pursue an ignis fatuus, which, dazzling their perceptions as it lures them on, at last leaves them in the mire (from which no skill perhaps can extricate them) to curse themselves and their deceiver.
The exertion of medical science is sufficient for the removal of diseases capable of cure, and is unaccompanied by the risk of leaving others in their place: quackery, on the contrary, attempts what it cannot, from ignorance, perform, and frequently establishes a malady of more serious character than the one it professed to relieve. The medical man, aware of the structure of the human form, of the disposition and arrangement of its several parts in a state of health, is gradually led to a consideration of their condition in disease: that grand master, experience, enables him to discriminate between the cause and effect of morbid action; a long attention to the detail of practice gives him power over a list of remedies whose properties he has ascertained by observation; and in addition to all this, his daily thoughts are engaged in the investigation of sickness in its many forms, and, frequently, his midnight oil expended, while he peruses the observations, and profits by the researches of others. Again, the advertising quack is frequently an unlettered, never a well-informed man, at least on medical topics: his education, his habits, his purposes, are all foreign to science; the first has not been devoted to the accomplishment of a particular duty; the second have not received that polish, or acquired that delicacy so necessary in the hour of sickness and distress; and the third are directed solely to the purposes of gain, rather than to the noble aim of assisting his fellow-creatures; and yet such a character finds support. To the individual who can depend upon his abilities we may exclaim, "tibi seris, tibi metis," and so dismiss him to his fate.