The testimony of physicians in such cases would be very apt to be disregarded, however rational and clear it might be, unless it could be brought to confront the testimony of the bone-setter himself. Whenever this is done, educated skill always comes off victorious over quackery. Nothing so exposes and demolishes quackery, as a well-directed examination of the quack himself. It dispels from the minds of the jury the false notion of a natural gift that needs no teaching; a notion, which, so long as it remains in the mind, effectually prevents any candid examination of the facts. They are made to see by such a course, that the joints of the body are constructed upon mechanical principles, and that they are to be understood just like any other machine; and the ignorance and consequent want of skill of the bone-setter become even ridiculously palpable. Some few years ago a physician in Springfield, Mass., was prosecuted by a patient for mal-practice. The case had fallen from his hands into those of a celebrated bone-setter, who appeared as a witness at the trial. The physician was triumphantly acquitted, and the exposed ignorance of the bone-setter had more influence with the jury, than all the display of surgical knowledge on the part of the faculty, drawn out by the learned counsel. It now remains for me to show why it is that natural bone-setters, in spite of all their ignorance and their mistakes, acquire such a reputation for success, as they often do. I deem it a very easy task to do this to the satisfaction of any reasonable person. I have already alluded to those cases in which the bone is not dislocated, but the patient supposes, and the bone-setter supposes, or, as is more often the case, _pretends_, that there is a dislocation. These are the cases which are the principal source of the bone-setter’s reputation. He pulls upon the affected limb and performs various manœuvres with it, and then thinks, or pretends, that he has ‘set’ the bone. In time the limb of course in most instances gets well, and thus in a case of mere sprain he gains the credit of having performed a wonderful operation. Especially is this so, when the patient has been first examined by a regular physician. _Probably more than half of the reputed cases of dislocation which come under the care of bone-setters are nothing but sprains._