Nugae canorae; or, epitaphian mementos (in stonecutter's verse) of the Medici family of modern times / by Unus quorum.

  • Wadd, William, 1776-1829.
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Nugae canorae; or, epitaphian mementos (in stonecutter's verse) of the Medici family of modern times / by Unus quorum. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    cuiGs all sorts of distoinpors. To which the Doctor added, in a grave manner : “ The child says true.” The pretended piety of Quacks is very effective. All their bills and books attest a variety of cures done partly by their medicines, and partly by the blessing of God. This is very emphatical and very effective in this age of cant. Nevertheless, an affidavit before the Lord Mayor is found to con- firm the faith; and a story is told of a man, who, although he was never ill in his life, was cured of every disease incident to human nature, and swore to it also. In fact, his life was a life of continued swearing and disease. The late Lord Gardestone, himself a valetu- dinarian, took the pains to inquire for those persons who had actually attested marvellous cures, and found that more than two thirds of the number died very shortly after they had been cured. Horace Walpole also gives us several instances of distinguished victims to Quackery. “ Sir Eob- ert,” says he, “ was killed by a lithonthriptic medicine; Lord Bolingbroke, by a man who pre- tended to cure him of a cancer in the face; and Winnington died soon after, by the ignorance of a quack, who physicked and bled him to death in a few days, for a slight rheumatism.” There was a period when Quackery was not practised with impunity. One Fairfax was fined