C. Van Rensselaer Creed to Frederick Douglass, November 5, 1855

For Frederick Douglass' Paper.

"QUACKERY."

NEW HAVEN, November 5th, '55.

DEAR DOUGLASS:—According to agreement in my last letter, I was to favor the columns of your paper, with an article on Quackery; which I should have done ere this, had it not been for the commencement of our Medical Term, which took place on the 14th of September. We have a very excellent class the present session, and the "Lectures," and "Operations," thus far, have been both instructive and entertaining. But to proceed with my subject.

"Quackery" is of a very ancient origin; the gentlemen of that profession can boast a long line, if not of Ancestors, at least of predecessors; they may go back as far as history reaches, and find their prototypes amongst the heathen priests, who practised Medicine, as a means of extending their influence over the people. as well as of emolument. Their temples were often made places of resort for those afflicted with disease; but the priests, like their modern copyists, veiled their practices with so much mysticism and secresy, that we should now have no information concerning them, were it not for the ludicrous pictures which some of the satirists have left us of their impostures. These priests would assume the garb of Æsculapius, and those who came to consult them, were directed to purify themselves in the lustral water, to lay their offerings on the altar, and then recline on couches prepared for them; and as the god was supposed not to declare his will except in dreams, the patients were directed to repose on the skins of sacrificed rams, in order to procure pleasing visions. When they all appeared asleep, the priest, clothed in the garb of "Æsculapius," entered, and with much solemnity revealed to each the remedies fitted for his relief-

By the regulations devised for the management of this sort of temple worship, (if it can be socalled.) it was provided that no part of the sacrifices should be consumed outside the walls of the temple, and that no individual should on any account be allowed to die within them. We cannot deny to these measures the merit of prudence and sagacity, as one tended to support the purse of the fraternity as effectually as the other, to maintain the credit they so long enjoyed. People may smile at the rude artifices of the priests, and perhaps even express pity for the delusion of those who so long and so blindly deferred to them, but they should recollect that in our own times of Civilization, and Improvement, impositions just as barefaced, are daily practised throughout this vast country, and men and women, hand in hand, are victims to them. You cannot at the present day, take up a newspaper, magazine, or periodical, but what your eyes meet with several of these "Quack Advertisements," purporting to cure all the discases, to which flesh is heir to. On steam-boats, cars, and in all public places, you meet with the venders of these worthless nostrums, with their life bitters, pills, syrups, gamarind water, the beet juice decoctions, &c. ; they will show you lengthy certificates, from nearly all the "Ex-Presidents," and Congressmen in the U. S., Judges, eminent Divines, &c., who. in turn. have been cured of a thousand and one diseases, wholly unknown to the Medical faculty. - New, what sensible man would believe such a nonsensical story as the above: Yet, still, how many do we daily see, who are the "victims" of the Quack, and his remedies and how many were yearly, and even daily consigned to their graves by these wholesale murderers. It is singular that the "Colored People," as a general thing, are victims of this disgusting susperstition; many of the more ignorant classes, are in the habit of carrying "red pepper about in their shoes, to keep of witches." Also charms

about their persons; if a friend, or a member of a family is taken suddenly ill, the hue and cry at once is, that they have been rooted or tricked. Consequently, a fortune-teller is sent for, to impart information to the affrighted family. Mesmerism is resorted to, in order to ascertain the perpetrator; after an expense of no small amount, the family are left with a sort of half satisfactory reply, and made to believe, that they must provide themselves with sundry bottles of syrups, strings of onions, amulets, and charms, in order to prevent a return of the witch. Most of us have at some time or other paid a visit to one of those asylums, wherein are congregated persons afflicted with different forms of mental hallucination; as they collect around us, each telling his own tale, how often do we see an incrudulous smile on the faces of the others, or receive a whispered intimation that the speaker is a mere driveller, and unworthy of notice! Each perceives the other's observation. None seem conscious of their own. Just so it is with the followers of any fashionable quack.

Yours respectfully,

C. VAN RENSSELAER CREED.

Class of '56, "Yale Medical University."