Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 48.djvu/906

824 composition of which has been kept in the family for generations. This one will cure every disease; that one, of more discreet pretensions, is only good for some particular disorder, generally an incurable one. A court bailiff prescribes an infallible remedy for epilepsy, consisting of a cat's skin applied to the back, rubbing the belly with ointment, and old brandy in the loins. All are made out after a model like this, and can be judged from it. A vast number of popular errors are built on the advice of these pretended specialists. A whole inventory of medicines, each more absurd than the others, may be found in books on madness. Do

 An exact representation of the room in which Michel Shappach, known as Médecin de la Montagne (the mountain doctor), held his consultations. Drawn from life by G. Locher in 1774. Engraved at Basle by Barthélemy Hubner in 1775. (Reduced from an engraving in the collection of M. Gaston Tissandier.

not dispute us, say the authors; we have the facts to prove the reliability of the doctor and the sureness of the remedy.

It is certain that, whatever we may say or do, the tendency to these superstitions is not changed. The spread of instruction and of the knowledge of hygiene is of little avail in the contest against inveterate prejudices. Matters are much worse in the field of medicine proper.

There is a story of a doctor who recognized an old servant in a quack who was doing a large business, and asked him how he accounted for his success. "How many of these fifty persons