Note 35 — Chapter XI · MEANS OF REMOVING QUACKERY.

There is nothing by which the quackish practitioner is more plainly distinguished from the honorable one, than by the mode of competition in which he engages, and the kind of reputation at which he aims. He resorts to tricks, and raises false issues. He boasts of success; and, if he do it skilfully, he does not much endanger his reputation for a proper degree of modesty. He is always finding out something wonderful in his cases—something which it is supposed other physicians have not acuteness enough to discern. He loves to see the credulous, whether learned or unlearned, gaze at his wonders, and to hear the loose tongues of gossipers busy in his praise. He aims at a reputation for performing great cures in cases in which others have been said to fail—a reputation which no honorable physician ever has, however eminent he may be, because he does not seek after it. Every quack seeks for it, and acquires it to a greater or less extent. The physician can have it if he will make it his aim, but in doing this he puts himself on a level with the quack in the common field of empiricism.