various modes of practice which are known as
irregular. This, as will be understood, is merely a more liberal
rendering of the same idea which prompted me to unite in my own business
homoeopathy and the ordinary practice of medicine. I proposed to my
partner, accordingly, to combine with our present business that of
spiritualism, which I knew had been very profitably turned to account in
connection with medical practice. As soon as he agreed to this plan,
which, by the way, I hoped to enlarge, so as to include all the
available isms, I set about making such preparations as were necessary.
I remembered to have read somewhere, that a Doctor Schiff had shown that
you could produce remarkably clever knockings, so called, by voluntarily
dislocating the great toe and then forcibly drawing it back again into
its socket. A still better noise could be made by throwing the tendon of
the peroneus longus muscle out of the hollow in which it lies, alongside
of the ankle. After some effort I was able to accomplish both feats
quite readily, and could occasion a remarkable variety of sounds,
according to the power which I employed or the positions which I
occupied at the time. As to all other matters, I trusted to the
suggestions of my own ingenuity, which, as a rule, has rarely failed me.

The largest success attended the novel plan which my lucky genius had
devised; so that soon we actually began to divide large profits, and to
lay by a portion of our savings. It is, of course, not to be supposed
that this desirable result was attained without many annoyances and some
positive danger. My spiritual revelations, medical and other, were, as
may be supposed, only more or less happy guesses; but in this, as in
predictions as to the weather and other events, the rare successes
always get more prominence in the minds of men than the numerous
failures. Moreover, whenever a person has been fool enough to resort to
folks like myself, he is always glad to be able to defend his conduct by
bringing forward every possible proof of skill on the part of the man he
has consulted. These considerations, and a certain love of mysterious or
unusual means, I have commonly found sufficient to secure an ample share
of gullible individuals; while I may add, that, as a rule, those who
would be shrewd enough to understand and expose us are wise enough to
keep away altogether. Such as did come were, as a rule, easy enough to
manage, but now and then we hit upon