ly or partially
blighted by the adroitly-worded insinuations of those advertising
quacks. We all know that "fools are the game that knaves pursue," and no
well-informed member of the community needs to be informed that the
victims captured by quack advertisements are not among the wiser portion
of the community. Many of them, however, lie open to be allured into the
quack's net, not by mere congenital and absolute folly, but because of
the inexperience of youth or lack of knowledge of the world, or perhaps
in some cases from a natural deficiency in the faculty of deciphering
characteristic expression. There are some who fail to recognize a quack
advertisement when it meets their eye, from a defect in perception
similar to that which incapacitates certain persons from distinguishing
a pocket-book dropper, or a bunco steerer, or a billiard sharp, or a
sporting "gent."

Of course, there are degrees and varieties of quacks, as well as in the
character of their announcements. The street-vender of a "magic
pain-reliever," who, by dint of talk and manipulation, convinces some
credulous sufferer that his rheumatism is banished, is a quack. So are
those who advertise such preparations as sarsaparilla, blood-mixtures,
and a variety of pills, potions and lozenges too numerous to mention. So
also are those marvelous discoverers of "hair restorers," "removers of
freckles," and so on. Most of these do little harm beyond lightening the
purses of the purchasers, and in some cases the administration of an
inert substance, by exciting the victim's imagination, produces a cure.
But the great injury, so far as these innoxious preparations are
concerned, lies in the fact that they prevent the sufferer from seeking
proper professional treatment. Still this class of quacks is rather to
be reckoned among swindlers who obtain money under false pretences, than
among the _bona fide_ medical quacks that we have in view. The great aim
of this pernicious class is to get people in fair, ordinary health to
consult them by means of newspaper advertisements, almanacs, pamphlets
and circulars filled with details of the character and symptoms of
various diseases, scattered broadcast through the land. We will not
contaminate our pages in giving samples _in extenso_ of this prurient
and abominable literature, but a few of the typical advertisements to be
met in even respectable newspapers, can hardly be omitted if the
exposure is to be thorough:

*MEN O