It may be readily supposed, that from the long career of success which I have had in the treatment of scrofulous diseases, some impudent individuals should have attempted to imitate my mode of proceeding, and to foist themselves and their spurious _remedies_ upon the public; of this I should have cared nothing had they not done it at my expense; because these inventions will find their proper level in the estimation of the public, notwithstanding their props and delusions. But these men are absolutely so ignorant, that they are compelled to copy my cases and observations _verbatim_; and I have little doubt that this edition will have issued from the press but a very few months, before one or other of them will be purloining such parts of it as their hired scribes may consider to answer their purpose. Not that these imposters _understand_ the observations which I have made on scrofula or cancer, their heads are too empty--their ignorance too profound--and their pretensions consequently too barefaced. Relying upon the credulity of the public, they make no scruple in being guilty of glaring plagiarism; they thus strut about in borrowed plumes, and their presumption keeps pace with their want of information. As a proof of the grossest ignorance, I have seen it asserted that sixty cases of _confirmed_ (or constitutional) cancer in the mouth or throat, have been treated with complete success; while, in reality, the cases, _if they ever existed_, (of which I have considerable doubt) were either of a scrofulous nature, or the remains of a certain disease. I am confident the pretender NEVER saw a _real case_ of cancer of the mouth and throat; and the very assertion that portions of bone have been exfoliated in these cases, gives the lie direct to the whole, for it is a fact that cancer never causes bone to _exfoliate_, and in this I am borne out by every medical authority. It may cause the long bones to become fragile, so that the patient may have a fractured limb from a very slight cause, or it may convert bone into a dense carcinomatous structure; but _exfoliation will never take place_. Then as to the occurrence of _confirmed_ cancer in the mouth and throat, I have no hesitation in stating that it _rarely if ever occurs_, and that if it ever did, it was a perfectly incurable disease; and I could cite a host of authorities to prove my assertion. And who is to oppose these great authorities? What man with experience so extensive--with knowledge so profound--with sagacity so searching--with learning so deep--shall declare that he himself has seen and treated sixty cases of _true carcinomatous disease_ of the mouth and throat? Who is this Goliah of Surgery? Who is the judge in this matter to whose opinion he commands us to bow? Reader! the fact is, that the assertion is so glaringly false, that if only a particle of shame enter into his composition, it must betray its existence.