Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Quackery, Pharmaceuticals, Medical Treatment, Statistics, Narcotics

    Notes the changing fashions in quackery including those for pills and lozenges. Discusses and repudiates the mania for sarsaparilla, a drink that is 'said to "destroy every kind of humour"'. Asks the editor of Notes and Queries why 'anybody dies at all' given the large consumption of supposedly life-saving medicine. Criticises the statistics used by quacks to puff their medicines.