Chapter IV: Quackery, 80

The grand source of quackery the false reference of effects to
causes. The way in which a remedy, whether active or inert, acquires
its reputation. Quack medicines principally of _three_ kinds. 1.
Evacuants. Great similarity in these—made up mostly of articles
in common use. 2. Those which are supposed to act upon the system
in a gradual way, as alternatives. Preparations of sarsaparilla.
Impositions. 3. Those which are supposed to act especially upon the
lungs. Harm done by their indiscriminate use. Quantities of inert
and damaged articles used in preparing quack medicines. Importance
of the _name_ of a medicine in giving it currency. Ridiculousness
of quack advertisements. Certificates. Chiefly of _four_ kinds. 1.
Forgeries. 2. Essentially, sometimes wholly, untrue. How obtained. 3.
Those given by invalids imagining themselves to be relieved. 4. Those
given by invalids who are relieved while taking the medicine—inferred
to be done _by_ the medicine. Certificates of clergymen. Rule of the
medical profession in regard to nostrums. Proposed mode of guarding
against imposition. Quackery as a monstrous business interest.
Press and legislatures trammelled by it. Itinerant quack lecturers.
Lectures especially to the ladies. Animal magnetism. Paracelsus
the “prince of quacks.” St. John Long. Perkins’ tractors. Forms of
Quackery many, but the materials from which they are formed always
the same. No discoveries have ever been made by quackery.