[R] The whole farrago of quack or patent medicines is destructive of health and life, whether cordial or vegetable balsams, tinctures, syrups, or elixirs,—pectoral or antiscorbutic drops, bile or antibilious pills, tonic or digestive wines, balms of gilead, guestonian embrocations, Leake’s pillula salutaria, and a thousand other poisonous and life-destroying trash. Thousands upon thousands of children under three years of age are consigned yearly to the tomb in London alone, by means of the soothing or vegetable syrups, the infants’ balms, the worm-cakes, the anodyne necklaces, Godfrey’s cordial, Daffy’s elixir, Dalby’s carminative, apothecaries’ draughts and powders, and other infernal recipes; which, if they do not cause immediate death, occasion fits, convulsions, fevers, excruciating gripes, palsy, and often confirmed idiotcy. Gowland’s lotion, the kalydors, the macassar oils, the cosmetiques royales, the red and white olympian dews, the blooms, the various hair dyes, &c. have not only robbed many a female of her charms and loveliness, but have even produced severe pains of the bowels and of the brain, have occasioned convulsions, and laid the foundation of those diseases which have deprived the victims of life itself. The folly of depending for cure or relief upon the “gout extractors,” “the metallic tractors,” “animal magnetism,” and “signatures,” has been at length exploded; it is therefore unnecessary to say a word on the subject. [S] The audacity of this fellow exceeds, if possible, the unblushing and incorrigible effrontery of the other impostors. He undertakes to cure all kinds of diseases without any kind of medicine; and he asserts that all difficult surgical operations can be superseded by merely taking a sup or two of his delectable compound of combustibles. According to the modest pretensions of this exotic esculapius, he obtained the knowledge of physic and the power of subduing disease, by intuition or inspiration: he had no need to learn: there was no period of infancy in his medical attainments; he at once attained the highest point and full maturity of medical and chirurgical knowledge! Was there ever a more audacious piece of imposture attempted to be palmed upon the credulity of the most credulous of mortals, Mr. Bull and his progeny? But perhaps the philippics of this gaunt-looking “hygeist” against surgery and anatomy may produce some good. It is true that to a certain degree, those arts should be esteemed and cherished; but after the allowance of suitable consideration, they should fall into their proper rank, with wholesome restrictions. Both the arts are overrated in point of real utility. Were a knowledge of the living laws of the human frame more inculcated by medical professors than is the case, it would be found of more essential service than all the coxcombry of the present day respecting surgical distinctions and anatomical dissections.