CHAPTER XXVII.
NOSTRUM RECOMMENDATIONS.
The public are egregiously imposed upon by certificates of cures, and other recommendations of nostrums, which they see in print. There are a multitude of ways which the ingenuity of dishonest men have devised for this purpose, and they are so universally untrue that every such recommendation should be regarded as a falsehood, without respect to the appended signature; because no one who ought to be believed, will ever set his name to any such recommendation, unless he is himself deceived. The proprietor of a nostrum may have some relatives, or other persons, who are in some way interested in his success, and who are therefore willing to lend a helping hand in order thereby to benefit themselves. Or he may have presented certain individuals with samples for their trial and use, free of cost; and as some of those thus supplied may
