lish all those letters, to show on what slight grounds distinguished medical men have once recommended a quack specific. Their names at least, are recorded in terrorem, to warn them and others against such a prostration of medical authority and influ ence. The second inquiry of the committee, was respecting the use of the Panacea in the Philadelphia Hospital and in the Alms-house. In the Alms-house "the principal points of difference between the panacea practice, and the regular treatment of scrophulous patients are, in the greater number of failures under the former or empirical, and the violent and alarming symptoms following the use of the nostrum." The panacea was introduced into the Hospital by Dr. Price, of whom the committee thus speak: The cause of Dr. Price's admiration of the Panacea need not be dwelt on at present. It is sufficient to remark, that he went to Europe, in the year 1323, as agent of Swaim, for the vending and distribution of the Panacea Of the results of this mission the world has not yet been informed. p. 6. Subsequently it is stated, in the American Journal of the Medical Societies," that he failed to introduce his nostrum into vogue in England. We quote the following to show how much reliance is to be placed on the boldest advertisements of our patent doctors. The sum of the Hospital practice is found in one solitary case. The Panacea was never purchased for the use of that institution, nor ever received as an article of regular prescription in it. And yet, this circumstance, together with all the facts connected with its use and discontinuance in the Alms House, staring him in the face, Wm. Swaim, in his book bearing date November, 1826, with more assurance than prudence, holds the following lan guage: "What can be more satisfactory to the public than to know, that it is used in all institutions in this country, alike eminent for the professional the purely benevolent purposes for skill which presides over them, and which they are designed-the Pennsylvania and New-York Hospitals, and the Philadelphia Alms House?" p. 7. So far as regards the Pennsylvania Hospital and Alms-house the committee say "the assertion of William Swaim is directly the reverse of truth." We know of a goodly list of names which we are persuaded the committee might have included under the same condemnation. The third point reported by the committee consists of some general testimonies respecting the efficacy of this medicine. We give a few of the cases. A large number are given in the Report, many of them as bad or worse than those here cited. · "Dr. Samuel Emlen reports, that of all the patients he has met with who have used Swaim's Panacea, he has only heard one say that he was benefited by its use.' The first patient who came under his notice, and whose name and residence he indicates, was, in the year 1821, visited twice by him, for a scrofulous tumour. A note received from the patient, apin other medical attendance, at the soprized Dr. Emlen of his having called licitation of his brothers. After the lapse of a few weeks, this person called on Dr. E., apologized for his behaviour, at which he expressed great regret, and stated his having employed Doctor Swaim; from whom he had taken seven bottles of his Panacea, at $5 per bottle, without any good effect. He added, that Swaim then went to the apothecary, who had formerly made up Dr. Emlin's prescriptions in this case, and obtained some of the very same medicine which the latter gentleman had directed, and which Swaim gave to the patient. This son having detected, immediately, the permedicine by its taste and appearance, was disgusted at the trick; and, wearied with the ill success of his new doctor, discharged him. Dr. Emler having received what he conceived to be a suitable apology, took the patient again under his care, who in a few weeks was entirely well.-p. 8. Dr. Emlen states his having seen a number of poor sailors, who applied for admission into the Hospital, after expending all the funds they had in this and other Panaceas; and a poor carter, who told him that he had spent $50 in Swaim's Panacea, for rheumatism, which had done him no good, and that his son had laid out $28 in the same medicine.-p. 10. Dr. Emerson states his having known children greatly injured, by having Swaim's syrup given to them, for the removal of swellings suspected of being scrofulous, but which proving to have arisen from acute inflammation, were driven to suppuration under very aggravated circumstances.—p. 10. The third case recorded by Dr. Harris, is of Mr. K., a scrivener, afflicted with dyspepsia. This person applied for relief to Swaim, by whom, as might have been anticipated, the Panacea was prescribed. After he had taken the second bottle, he became salivated, and was affected with a mercurial eruption on his shoulders and face. On his showing the eruption to Swaim, the latter expressed his satisfaction at its appearance; and added, that his "medicine was driving disease out through his skin." The patient was thus encouraged to persevere in the use of the medicine, until The he had taken a few bottles more. effect was an increase of the salivation, and an extension of the cutaneous dis ease, until nearly the entire surface of the body was covered with it. Having been kept for three months in this state of profuse salivation, which was accompanied by mercurial ulcers, and extreme emaciation, the sufferer applied to Dr. Harris, and a medical friend of his, for relief. But it was too late; the long continued irritation produced by the Panacea, brought on ascites, or abdominal dropsy, of which he died in a few months.-p. 11. In to in your circular of June last, of These cases are a specimen of the rest. The extent of the mischief done by this medicine may be inferred perhaps from the wealth of the proprietor, acquired as we have understood by the sale of his nostrum. The committee give the following history of the introduction of this syrup into general use, on the authority of a committee of the NewYork Medical Society. It appears from this report, that about the year 1811, Dr. Berger, the elder, was joined in consultation with several physicians of New York, in the case of a gentleman laboring under Dr. Griffith certifies ; a loathsome complication of disease, The only quack medicine alluded the sequelae of syphilis, and the repeatVOL. II. No. VIII. 55 ed and irregular use of mercury, which had resisted all the ordinary modes of treatment; and at his (Dr. Berger's) suggestion, the Rob ofl'Affecteur was given with good effects. "The re markable recovery of this gentleman, and the difficulty of obtaining an adequate supply of the rob for extensive use, owing to the restrictions that at that time existed in our commercial intercourse with Europe, led Doct. M'Nevin, who was one of the physicians in consultation, to give publicity to its composition and its worth. He accordingly published, in the third volume of the Medical and Philosophical Journal and Review, the recipe of M. Allion, a French chemist, for its preparation. The remedy prepared according to this recipe, with the exception of substituting the bark of sassafras, or the shavings of guaiacum for the marsh reed-grass, was soon after employed by several of our city practitioners, with the usual happy results. Among many patients, Mr. Swaim, then a book binder, living in this city, experienced its beneficial effects in his own person; and soon after succeeded in obtaining from Dr. N. J. Quackenboss, the prac titioner who had administered it to him the recipe for its formation, and the directions for its employment: whereupon he removed to Philadelphia, and set forth the vegetable syrup which he denominated Swaim's Panacea, for the treatment of those diseases for which the rob had been so long celebrated. In the first instance, Mr. Swaim's directions for using his panacea, paring the sarsaparilla ptisan, and the quantity and the times of taking it in conjunction with the syrup, were the same, nearly verbatim, as those given by Dr. M'Nevin, in the publication above reffered to, for the use of the rob; but of late he has altered for pre the directions considerably, and has ceased to insist on the conjoined use of the sarsaparilla ptisan, even in small quantities. The flavor of the sassafras in the syrup first prepared by Swaim was very perceptible; but it is now the opinion of many that he has substituted the leaves of the Pipsisewa (Chimaphila corymbosa of Pursh) for the marsh reed-grass, sassafras, or guaiacum, which we think very probable. However this may be, the syrup also contains the oil of winter green; (ol gaultheriæ;) for its flavor is evident both to the smell and taste. Swaim's object in this addition is doubtless to disguise the other materials, and to render the medicine agreeable to the taste: but it may also be a useful addition as a stimulant and carminative, obviating that loathing and disgust of the medicine, which sometimes occurs from its long continued use. pp. 21, 22. tablished that very few of the comIndeed it is a point abundantly esmon specifics differ in any important particular from the combinations which are well known to intelligent physicians. We know that many of them are the simplest possible. For instance, the medicine known by the name of "Anderson's Cough Drops," which meets with a most extensive sale, we are well assured was first prepared on the shop counter of a country apothecary in this state, by a wandering journeyman saddler; and consists of nothing but three or four parts balsam of honey to one part laudanum, disguised, as are most quack preparations with the oil of wintergreen. He was led to give it the name of Anderson, from the fact that Anderson's Pills had already obtained a currency. Now it must be obvious at a single glance that such a preparation is fitted to give a temporary relief, but in a vast multitude of cases will be positively injurious, and is very liable to beguile the patient with falacious hopes and prevent his using proper remedies, until the disease becomes too deeply seated to admit of a cure. At the close of this Report, the committee thus apply the information which they had obtained respecting the Panacea of Swaim, to the other deprivative syrups : The information obtained by the committee, in reply to the circular of the Medical Society, has been chiefly on the subject of the Panacea of Swaim but, as far as facts have come to their knowledge, there is every reason to believe, that the other Panaceas, and the Catholicon, and Columbian Syrup, are, in composition and cal with, the nostrum of Swaim. The proprietors and venders of all of them publish accounts of wonderful cures, performed by their use; but all ought to be viewed with equal mistrust, and, for the reasons already given, be treated with no favor by the regular practitioner, who regards himself as one of the guardians of the health of his fellow citizens.-pp. 28, 29. general effects, similar to, if not identi- of organs exceedingly different, and requires an intelligent discrimination to decide on their character, and the means they indicate to be employed. Nothing besides is less demonstrated than the specific effects of remedies; nothing less certain than a power to produce their demonstrative remedial results; nothing is more positive than that they frequently aggravate the very condition they are administered to remove." Scientific practice consists in a careful inquiry after the causes of symptoms, the history of the case, the state and constitution of the patient, &c., while the quack's only question is for the popular name of the disease, for which he has a specific, ticketed and prepared. To this application of the subject so far as the Vegetable Catholicon is concerned, we have the objections of W. W. Potter, the proprietor of the last mentiened article. I must protest against the appellation of "Quack Medicine" being bestowed upon the Catholicon, or that of “Quack" to myself, except so far as every person may be termed a quack, who makes any pretensions to, but who is in any degree ignorant of the whole science of medicine; and, it is believed, that there are very few persons in the community, who would be willing to acknowledge themselves entirely ignorant on this subject, or as incapable of prescribing some remedy in all ordinary cases of disease. The more proper definition of Quackery is, bold practice and deceit; and I have only to desire, that such charges may fall as harmlessly, and as certainly, at the feet of my accusers, as they do at my own. The first charge I entirely deny, and the second I will endeavour to refute in a very few words. p. 5. For ourselves while we admit that most quackery is "bold practice and deceit," we consider the essence of it to be the application of specific cures to diseases, without respect to the state of the patient or peculiarities of each case. The whole system of curing diseases by printed directions is quackery. To use the language of a highly respectable physician,* "the same train of symptoms arise from causes the most opposite, belong to diseased conditions * Dr. Samuel Jackson. Amer. Jour. Medical Science, Vol. I. p. 91. "As though millions of experiments, and two thousand years experience, without the discovery of a single specific or absolute remedy for a disease, was not sufficient to demonstrate the futility of the expectation. The committee, after a careful examination of the evidence, both written and verbal, submitted to them, respecting the sensible properties, presumed composition, and curative and deleterious effects on the animal economy, of Swaim's Panacea, are led to the following conclusions and opinions. This syrup, when free from any mercurial preparation, not only fails to exhibit virtues as a curative agent superior to various compound decoctions and syrups of sarsaparilla, which have been administered in the regular prac tice of medicine for the last two hun dred and fifty years, in the different stages of syphilis, and in chronic rheu matism and cutaneous complaints, but is inferior in efficacy to some of them, as well on account of the variableness of its composition, as from the occasional loss of the medical properties, and the adulteration of certain articles entering into it. In so large a manufactory as that of Swaim, where no supervision can be exercised on the part of a physician, nor rival efforts made by apothecaries, we are deprived of the usual pledges that the composition called Panacea shall be of uniform strength and freshness; and hence, of the mischief which has ensued on one cause, in addition to others already assigned, of its frequent failures, in the class of diseases, so many of which are benefited by the syrup of sarsaparilla, properly prepared and judiciously administered. When the syrup contains corrosive sublimate, the preparation is still more objectionable. While all physicians are aware of the occasional efficacy of mercury, in certain stages of syphilis, and in scrofula, cutaneous diseases, ulcers, and hepatic affections, they are also well apprized of the caution with which this metal must be administered under any form, and of the great delicacy and skill requisite in the selection of cases of the above mentioned maladies, in which it can be used without producing serious, and too often irre parable mischief. It is this knowledge which has always made medical men so wary, in the use of this as well as other powerful articles of the materia medica. But that empirics, ignorant and consequently regardless of the necessity of such caution, have, at the expense of the health and lives of thousands, performed some cures by the indiscriminate use, or rather shameful abuse of mercury, especially of corrosive sublimate, and of arsenic, is a fact of frequent recurrence in the history of popular errors. We are not in possession of any salutary exceptions to the baneful tendency of the pretensions of empirics to allay suffering and cure disease. The Panacea of Swaim is on the same footing with all the quack medicines which have so often preceded its introduction. Im perfect admixture and suspension of the corrosive sublimate, and, of course, comparative inertness of one portion of the syrup, and the most deleterious and poisonous effects of the other, are some of the evils attendant on its secret manufacture. If to these be added, the indiscriminate recommendation of the Panacea for every form of disease, to persons ignorant of the nature and stage of their malady, ignorant of what they are swallowing, and totally unable to foersee, and of course unprepared to prevent or mitigate, its deleterious effects, or to avail themselves in time of the counsel and assistance of their regular medical advisere, a faint idea may be entertained the use of this so much and so fatally lauded nostrum. The committee have already spoken of the pretensions of its proprietor to cure by its means, certain specified diseases. They have exhibited the utter fallacy of these pretensions; and will now add their conviction, founded on experience, that when the same, or nearly a similar formula has been prescribed by the regular physician, success has followed its use in cases in which the Panacea had either failed to do good or was inju rious. The reason of this difference of result is obviously to be found in the judicious timing of a remedy on the part of a physician; a word which has no place in the vocabulary of a quack, any more than the practice could be appreciated by his limited capacity. But were the merits of this or any other Panacea or quack medicine of even a decided nature, the insurmountable objection remains against receiving, under any circumstances, into medical practice, or of fostering by medical eulogy, the use of a secret compound; since there is so little certainty of its uniform preparation, that the recommendation of a bottle of Panacea to day, cannot apply to another bottle prepared tomorrow. The power withheld from the members of the medical faculty of exercising any supervision and correction in this secret manuracture, is not compensated for by any pledge which the individual, who claims the exclu sive right, can furnish on the_score" of talents, education, or philanthropy. No physician could conscientiously prescribe, nor apothecary vend, calomel or tartar emetic, prepared, no matter by whom, if, on inquiry and comparison, the different portions of the article were of unequal strength, and possessed of different chemical properties; still less could a pyhsician or apothecary, with any shadow of propriety, extend the slightest countenance or encouragement to any one who should arrogate to himself the exclusive right of preparing calomel or tartar emetic, and yet refuse permission for competent persons to witness his manufacture, and to point out the errors in his mode of conducting it. It is a matter of deep regret to the committee, as they are well assured it has long been to the society, that cir |