Even if the remedy be not of a positive character, but wholly inert, enough of the whole number that take it will get better, from the curative power of nature, and from mental influence, to give it, for a time, the reputation of curing disease. Many examples might be given. An amusing instance of the celebrity sometimes gained by inert remedies, occurred in Paris. A man who had sold to great profit an eye-water, at length died without communicating to any one the composition of it. His widow regretted the loss of the profits which came from the sale of the eye-water. Without telling her trouble to any one, she filled up the phials from the River Seine, and went on to sell the eye-water as usual. Cures occurred as before, and everybody believed that her husband had bequeathed the recipe to her. On her death-bed her conscience was much disturbed on account of the deception which she had thus practised upon the community, and she made confession to the physician who attended upon her. He, however, quieted her mind by telling her, that he was sure she need give herself no uneasiness, for her medicine had at least done no harm—a consolation which most venders of secret medicines could not have. The variety of both active and inert remedies, which have enjoyed, in the way that I have indicated, a temporary popularity, is very great. Even calomel, which now seems to be especially despised by all empirics and their followers, has had its hey-day of popular favor. It was one of the chief remedies of Paracelsus, who has been styled the prince of quacks. And some years ago an empiric, in the staid city of Boston, acquired a great reputation for wonderful cures, by giving calomel in very large doses, even by the teaspoonful. His reputation was, of course, short-lived; for, though he seemed to make some capital hits, so glaring an abuse of a good remedy could not but be attended with bad results, occasionally of so palpable a character, as to undeceive even the credulous public. The most prominent quack medicines are principally of _three_ kinds. 1. Evacuants. To this class belong the almost numberless varieties of pills advertised in the newspapers. There is a great similarity in the composition of these pills, although each kind is ushered into notice with all the pretensions of an entirely new discovery. Aloes, gamboge, &c., medicines in common use, form the basis of nearly all of them. They are simply good cathartic preparations, and have none of the extraordinary virtues attributed to them. And, as those who are ailing are commonly benefitted by producing some amount of cathartic effect, these different pills actually do some good to quite a large proportion of the cases to which they are applied. The difficulty with them is, that used indiscriminately, as they so generally are, they in many cases do injury, and in some to a fatal extent.