Page:Quackery Unmasked.djvu/299

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
NOSTRUM RECOMMENDATIONS.
295

printed recommendations of nostrums are falsehoods, and that every such article is more or less dangerous, is always liable to do more harm than good, and should ever be shunned as some deadly Upas.

The American people are great lovers of nostrums. They devour whatever in that line is new, with insatiable voracity. Staid Englishmen look on in astonishment. They call us pill-eaters and syrup-drinkers, and wonder at our fickleness and easy credulity; so that we have almost become a laughing-stock in the eyes of the world. Medicine mongers are continually catering for the public taste, and as soon as one dish becomes a little stale, the table is bountifully supplied with new varieties in the greatest profusion. Brandreth could never have succeeded in his own country; but he saw that the people of the United States, like young birds in their nest, were holding their mouths wide open for something new. He embraced the opportunity, and presented himself here, ready to supply their cravings. He announced to the people of the United States that he had made the great