Physicians and quacks.

Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Physicians and quacks. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    14/14 (page 178)
    perienced as put your faith in “testi- monials 1 ” You will not even send to the library to borrow (much less buy) the book, which a page of adver- tised “ opinions of the press ” as- sures you is the most splendid work of the day, thrilling in incident, pro- found in thought, brilliant in style, replete with humour and pathos, and with every other quality which a book could have. You are deaf to these trumpets. You order a book of which none of these things are said—about which there is no flourish whatever. And you are wise. But why does this wisdom desert you when a Pill or a Lotion is placarded on the walls, or arrests your attention in the advertising columns % Is it of more conse- quence that you should yawn over a trashy book, which you have seen praised as a clief d’oeuvre, than that you should ruin your health because a charlatan praises his medica- ments % We conclude with an anecdote : A friend of ours, long a victim to dyspepsia, was earnestly recom- mended to try a “digestive powder” which promised to restore any amount of lost “ vigour.” The re- commendation came from one who had great confidence in the powder, because he knew that the advertiser made a very good living out of it. CAPTAIN CLUTTERBUCK’s CHAMPAGNE. A WEST INDIAN REMINISCENCE. CONCLUSION.—CHAPTER XV. It is necessary now that we take note of Mr Chitty’s movements. After descending from the mess- room, and after doing all that was in his heart as regarded the con- sumption and purloining of viands, Menelaus bethought him of that expression used by Tom Gervaise during dinner, which had unplea- santly affected his nerves, and which still, whenever he thought of it, caused an unaccountable misgiving. The fact was, that Nick’s mind had been for some days much unsettled —indeed, since Brune’s appearance at Crystal Mount. That appearance Nick conceived to bode no good to Christy’s family arrangements; it was, moreover, associated with the pang arising out of a suspected un- derstanding between Leander and Rosabella; so that, altogether, it excited a disagreeable foreboding, which various small incidents ap- preciable to Chitty’s keen percep- tion had augmented. Wine and feasting, as is generally the case in rancorous minds, far from dissipat- ing, only intensified his apprehen- sions. He could extract no definite suspicion from the meagre evidence, and felt the need of counsel and confidence. How to get these was the question. To call Christy from the festive board to listen to a cock- and-bull story (as this would be, even when lavishly embellished with lies), would have no effect save to bring down anathemas on his head as an old idiot: to call on Melhado would bring blows in ad- dition to abuse. In this dilemma he betook himself to a keener wit than either of theirs, and as soon as he could eat and drink no more, and had bestowed his movable plunder, he started off through the bush to Kingston, and stopped not till he arrived at the door of Mel- liado’s house, where he craved an audience with that gentleman’s mother. The old lady was at that time seated on a rocking-chair in her saloon, which was lit by a num- ber of wax-lights under brilliant