sed.

In no land under the sun are there so many ignorant blatant fakers
preying on a people, and in no land do you find so credulous a throng as
in America, yet claiming to represent the cream of the intelligence of
the world; they are so easily led that the most impossible person, if he
be a good talker, can go abroad and by the use of money and audacity
secure a following to drink his salt water, paying a dollar a bottle for
it and sing his praises. Such a doctor can secure the names and pictures
of judges, governors of States, senators, congressmen, prominent men and
women, officers of the volunteer army, artists, actors, singers--in
fact, prominent people of all kinds will provide their pictures and give
testimonials, which are blazonly published. These same people go to
Chinese drug shops and laugh at the "heathen" drugs, and wonder why the
Chinaman is alive. America has a body of physicians and surgeons who are
a credit to the world, modest, conscientious, and with a high sense of
honor, but they are as a dragon's tooth in a multitude to the so-called
"quacks," who take the money of the masses and prey upon them, protected
in many cases by the law. No one profession so demonstrates the abject
credulity of the great mass of Americans as that of medicine.

One other incident may further illustrate the jokes these so-called
doctors play upon the common people. In a country town was a "quack"
doctor, who professed to be a "head examiner," giving people charts
according to their "bumps," a fad which has many followers. "This,
ladies and gentlemen," said the lecturer, holding out a small skull, "is
the skull of Alexander the Great at the age of six. Note the prominent
brow. This [holding up a larger skull] is the same at the age of ten.
This [holding out another] at the age of twenty-one; [then stepping out
to the front of the stage] this is the _complete_ skull of Alexander at
the time of his death." All of which appeared to be accepted in good
faith.

Of the best physicians in America one can not say enough in praise. I
was most impressed by their high sense of honor. They have an agreement
which they call their "ethics," by which they will not advertise or call
attention to their learning. Consequently, the lower and ignorant
classes are caught by the blatant chaff of the patent-medicine venders
and the quack doctors. What the word "quack" means in this sense I do
not quite know; literally, it is the cry of the go