The influence of the example of physicians in sustaining empiricism shows itself occasionally in a still more objectionable mode, than the one just mentioned. The profession sometimes gives its sanction to the credulity of the public, not only by indulging a similar credulity, but by giving currency to some of the measures with which the quack deceives a credulous community. Many physicians, and some of them of high standing, have for various reasons given certificates in regard to patent medicines. Some too, from the love of money, have even ministered to the empirical tastes of the community, by getting up some secret nostrums of their own. Such physicians either boldly bid defiance to an indignant profession, or save themselves from merited disgrace and expulsion, by announcing, that they are willing to make known, to any physician who asks it, the composition of their medicines. By this miserable artifice they comply with the letter of our regulations, while they go directly counter to their spirit. For, after all, the successful sale of their medicines requires the employment of the same measures, to act upon the credulity of the public, which are made use of by the whole herd of ignorant quacks, and they commonly have little scruple in resorting to them. But there is a greater evil still, beyond all this, that exists in the medical profession, hindering it from waging successful war with empiricism. It is the _spirit_ of quackery, actuating quite a large proportion of the profession. It is not always manifested in palpable shape, and in acts which can be exposed to the contempt of all honorable men, but it exerts a concealed and yet a constant influence upon the habits of intercourse, prompting to the use of cunning arts in order to deceive the community, exciting an overweening desire for reputation, with an indifference to the grounds upon which it is based, and producing a competition among physicians that rests, to a great extent, if not wholly, upon false issues. Where such a spirit exists, the object is not so much to seek after truth, as it is to make out a good case in the eyes of the public. No effort is therefore made to correct the credulity of that public, but this is looked upon as one of the instruments to be used for the attainment of their selfish ends. They follow medicine as a trade, and this is an essential part of their capital.