FOOTNOTES: [35] There is nothing by which the quackish practitioner is more plainly distinguished from the honorable one, than by the mode of competition in which he engages, and the kind of reputation at which he aims. He resorts to tricks, and raises false issues. He boasts of success; and, if he do it skilfully, he does not much endanger his reputation for a proper degree of modesty. He is always finding out something wonderful in his cases—something which it is supposed other physicians have not acuteness enough to discern. He loves to see the credulous, whether learned or unlearned, gaze at his wonders, and to hear the loose tongues of gossipers busy in his praise. He aims at a reputation for performing great cures in cases in which others have been said to fail—_a reputation which no honorable physician ever has, however eminent he may be, because he does not seek after it_. Every quack seeks for it, and acquires it to a greater or less extent. The physician can have it if he will make it his aim, but in doing this he puts himself on a level with the quack in the common field of empiricism. CHAPTER XII. INTERCOURSE OF PHYSICIANS.[36] The object of this chapter is to notice some points in relation to the intercourse of physicians, which the community ought to understand, and to correct some prevalent errors, which tend to destroy the harmony of the profession, and to impair its usefulness. Mistaken notions are very prevalent, even among thinking and judicious men, both in regard to the object of consultations, and the principles by which they should be regulated. These notions sometimes exert a very injurious influence, and the patient is deprived of the benefit to which he has a right, from the combined wisdom of those who consult upon his case. What then is the main object of a consultation, is an important inquiry.