Not  so  with  the  quacks.  A  few  have  some  medical  knowl-
edge, and  are  even  graduates  of  regular  colleges,  but  the
majority  have  neither  medicajl  knowledge  nor  skill.  They
know  their  remedies  are  worthless,  and  they  offer  them  only
lo  make  money.  They  know  in  many  cases  that  their
nostrums  will  inflict  positive  injury  upon  their  victims ;  but
they  are  careless  of  the  harm  they  do.  They  live  upon
human  misery.
We  may  safely  assure  the  reader  that  not  one  single  phy-
sician, so  called,  who  conducts  his  business  by  means  of
advertisements  or  circulars,  is  really  competent  to  tr^t  the
cases  he  professes  to  cure,  and  that  no  one  knows  this  better
than  himself.  Do  not  answer  any  advertisement  you  may
see  in  the  newspapers.  They  are  worthless.  Above  all  do
not  take  the  medicines  sent  you  by  the  advertisers.  Some
of  them  are  poisonous  substances.  If  you  doubt  this  asser-
tion, take  the  compound  to  any  druggist  of  your  acquaintance,
and  ask  him  to  analyze  it,  and  tell  you  what  it  is  worth  as  a
healing  agent.  If  you  need  medical  advice,  go  to  some
physician  that  you  know  and  have  confidence  in.  Don't
pat  yourself  in  the  hands  of  a  man  you  know  nothing  o^
who  would  just  as  soon  poison  you  as  heal  you,  and  who
pursues  his  calling,  in  most  cases,  in  violation  of  the  laws  of
iLe  land.  Let  quack  doctors,  or,  in  other  toords,  advertising
ioctors,  alone.
THE   SECRETS   OF   THE   GREAT   CITY.  453

PATENT   MEDICINES.
As  a  general  rule,  the  various  medicines  advertised  as
"specifics,"  or  "panaceas,"  for  various  ills,  are  humbugs.
