"
We avail ourselves of the quotation, as it indirectly censures the
conduct of certain medical practitioners, who do not scruple to
recommend what are vulgarly called patent and other quack preparations,
the composition of which is carefully concealed from the public. Having
acquired their unmerited reputation by mere chance, and being supported
by the most refined artifices, in order to delude the unwary, we are
unable to come at the evidence of perhaps nine tenths of those who have
experienced their fatal effects, and who are now no longer in a
situation to complain.
From universal remedies or panaceas, to nostrums and specifics, such,
for instance, as pretend to cure the _same_ disease in every patient, is
easy and natural. With the latter also, impositions of a dangerous
tendency are often practised. It may be asked how far they are
practicably admissible, and in what cases they are wholly unavailing?
The answer is not difficult. In those diseases, which in every instance
depend upon the same cause, as in agues, the small-pox, measles, and
many other contagious distempers, the possibility of specifics, in a
limited sense, may be rationally, though hypothetically admitted.
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