Page:Quackery Unmasked.djvu/255

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THE PRESS.
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hundred dollars a year for his advertisements. It is impossible to ascertain the whole amount paid annually in the United States for quack advertisements. If we add to the ordinary newspaper advertisements, the cost of bills, circulars, almanacs and other gratuitous publications that are thrown broadcast over the country, thick as autumnal leaves, the aggregate will probably exceed a million of dollars. It is said that the famous Dr. Brandreth often paid annually nearly one-tenth of that sum. The Swaims, Moffats, Townsends, Wrights, and a host of others, have probably paid, severally, nearly or quite as much, and the renowned Perry Davis has not probably been outdone by any one of the class. These and many others have amassed princely fortunes by the sale of nostrums. Encouraged by their success, great numbers of others are pursuing a similar course, and are reaping the same golden harvest. And all this is done because the American Press is under no legal or moral restraint, and is ever ready, for money, to aid impostors in deceiving and defrauding the public. By these means, men with a smattering of medical know-