But all this time corrections were slowly springing up. Hundreds were beginning, under the light of a more liberal diffusion of general knowledge, to feel that the so-called Science of medicine and surgery was very different from science usually so termed; and, whilst other sciences were affording that which was definite and positive, the juxtaposition only seemed to bring out in higher relief the prevailing character of conjecture and uncertainty in medicine. People began to see that, in mere human occupation, mystery is but mystery, to whatever it is applied; and that one man can see in the dark about as well as another; that, where all is obscure, any one may scramble with a chance of success. Accordingly, we observe that a state of things has gradually been rising up, which, if it do not justify the expression of _quot medici tot empirici_, at least leads us to deplore that, of all callings in life, no one had ever such a legion of parasites as are represented by the hydra-headed quackeries which infest the medical profession. Naturally enough, too, Quackery attacked chiefly those disorders in regard to which Mystery avowed its incapacity, or declared to be incurable; and thus, while the regular profession made their _own limited_ knowledge the measures of the _powers of nature_, the quacks unconsciously proceeded, _de facto_, more philosophically, when they neither avowed nor acknowledged any other limits than those of observation and experience. Amongst, no doubt, innumerable failures, and, as we know, a multiplicity of fictions, they would now and then, in acting violently on the various organs, blunder on the last link in the chain—the immediate cause of the disorder; and perhaps effect the removal of a so-called incurable malady. Thus, whilst the regular profession were making their own knowledge the _measure_ of remedial possibility, and were reposing contentedly on the rule, they were every now and then undermined, or tripped up, by unexplained exceptions. It is difficult to conceive any state of things, when once observed, more calculated to drive men to the obvious remedy that a definite science would alone afford; nor should it be forgotten that multiform quackeries, with mesmerism to boot, are coincident with a system which allows _not one single appointment_, which the public are requested to regard as implying authority, to be open to scientific competition. Of late, many persons have begun to examine for themselves questions which they had been wont to leave entirely to their medical adviser.