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194 No class of quacks ever boasted louder or longer of the certainty and permanency of their cures; but if we follow their patients home, we shall in too many instances be convinced of the falsity of their pretensions.

As we have before stated, no empirical scheme ever spread more rapidly than Hydropathy, and certainly none ever received such liberal pecuniary aid. Men of wealth in Europe and in the United States threw their coffers wide open, and free as water invested their capital in water-cure establishments. Costly temples, dedicated to a modern Æsculapius, sprang up as if by enchantment—their spacious laboratories, extensive laundries and aquatic appendages, their gorgeous drawing-rooms and rich furniture, were indications of ability and permanency, whilst their broad ensigns seemed to offer to all mankind free absolution and remission of all bodily iniquities. These novel allurements soon filled their hydropathic temples with hosts of worshippers, and for a time everything went on swimmingly