medical knowledge, but it is certain that all that they do know, be it more or less, has been gained from the white people, and not a particle of it from any Indian source. And perhaps some of the preparations sold in the shops for Indian medicines may not be wholly worthless, but the pretension that they are genuine Indian remedies is a fraud. Every one of them has been contrived and put forth by some mercenary white man, who, although he may have made a fortune by it, is nevertheless himself a knave.
Quackery in any form is always an evil, but it may be only a partial evil, to result in universal good. It has in a few instances brought to light valuable remedies, and it may tend to correct and admonish legitimate medicine. But the motives which produce it are always mercenary, although ignorance and mistakes may sometimes slightly palliate the crime, yet an inordinate desire for gain, without sufficient strength of moral principle to control the means, may always be regarded as the moving cause. Quackery always has existed, and no doubt always will: it is a moral disease, which assumes a great variety of
