be but a poor critic on the practice of physicians. They can see that, though such an one may cope with others in the art of mending a dull fire, or on the subject of politics, yet on so abstruse a subject as medicine is, he ought to be somewhat modest in his opinions, and not put them forth, as is now so often done, with all the authority of an oracle. Why then, let me ask, have not intelligent men been made to look upon this subject in this light? This question I will endeavor to answer. There is, in the first place, a large class in the medical profession, who desire no change in the views of the community, but prefer to maintain their present false position. Their success, like that of the quack, actually depends on practising upon the credulity of the public. They would dread being scrutinized in the way which I have pointed out, by tests which the observer himself understands. They would prefer that people should continue to judge of them as they have done, by tests of which they are ignorant, because they can in this way continue to deceive them. The number of such men in our profession, I am sorry to say, is very large; and many of them have an extensive practice, and stand high in the public favor, and for this reason are quite indifferent both to their own standing with their brethren, and to the general standing of the profession itself. Though they do nothing perhaps which is sufficient to endanger their loss of caste among physicians, their influence is detrimental to the interests of the profession, and favors in the worst possible way the hold of quackery upon the community. There is another large class of medical men, who really desire to be honorable in their course, but who have felt themselves obliged to use to some extent the same arts with which the dishonorable impose upon their patients. They feel that they cannot reform public sentiment, but must take it as it is, and do the best they can with it. They find whims and caprices and false ideas among the intelligent, as well as the ignorant; and instead of taking any pains to correct the evil, they succumb to it, and set themselves to work to make capital out of it. They thus place themselves on common ground with the quack and the pretender, and subject themselves to be estimated by the same false rules which are applied to them. They thus have almost insensibly contracted habits of low cunning and shallow pretension; and these are habits which are not easily given up. Of course this class of medical men will be inclined to look with distrust upon any efforts to reform the profession, and the public, in the particulars to which I have alluded; and, though they may not actually oppose such efforts, or may from selfish motives even make a show of favoring them in certain quarters, they cannot be expected to give them any active support.