CHAPTER XXI.
NATURAL BONE-SETTERS.
There are men of a certain class, who, for aught I know, may be found in every part of the world, who are called Bone-setters. Some of these men possess a smattering of anatomical knowledge, and others none at all. Some have served as dressers in hospitals—some have practised as farriers; and others, even the most celebrated, have had no opportunities whatever of acquiring medical knowledge, and are profoundly ignorant of the first principles of anatomy and surgery. Some have acquired fortunes by their practice, and even females have in some instances become celebrated bone-setters. In most instances those who profess this peculiar skill do not pretend to have acquired it by study or other legitimate means, but hold that it is a natural endowment or family gift. And this absurd notion is extensively entertained by the
