The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1905-03-18

thirty-fiye years he had been success
fully COUGHING cataracts, taking OFF
all sorts of wens, curing. wry necks and
hare-Iips without blemish, though new
err so deformed." When he died Lady
Read carried on the business. Another
successful adVenturer was Roger
Grant. first a cobbler, then a tinker.
then Baptist preacher, and finally oc-
ulist to Queen Anne, whose eyes were
always weak-but perhaps not weaker
than her mind. A popular quatrain re-
corded the fortune of these two men:
Her Majesty sure was in a surprise,
Or else was very short-sighted,
When a tinker was sworn to look after
her eyes,
And the mountebank Read was
knighted.
DR.. Ward, who had the honor to be
mentioned by Pope, was originally a
footman, who picked up some medical
prescriptions, possibly really useful,
from French monks, the result being
his "Friar's Balsams." He was sum-
moned to court to set the kings
sprained thumb, and did it, receiving
the public thanks of the House of Com
mons. Men of this kind, and even the
unknown vendors of quack connections,
contrived to make large fortunes. The
physic usually cost next to nothing,
and was sold at high prices. We read
of one such yender, who, in Hammer
smith, offered to give five shillings to
every person who was Hammersmith
born; but to the numerous applicants
he produced a package of physic which
he asserted that he was selling else
where for five shillings sixpence; here
he would sell it for the odd sixpence.
Nearly every applicant purchased, and
We can have little doubt that the man
reaped large profit, even at the low
cred price. We can imagine how great
| the profit must have been on pills that
| were not simply stated to be worth, but
actually cost, a guinea a box, like DR..
Belloste's pills for rheumatism. But
perhaps one of the most surprising re-
wards ever reaped by sheer quackery
| was that gained by Mrs. Joanna Ste
phens. She declared. that she had be-
come possessed of an infaliible recipe
for the cure of stone, which she would
reveal to the public on receiving the
sum of five thousand pounds. A quar-
| ter of the amount was subscribed, and
| lodged with a banker, but the lady in
sisted on the whole sum. In the yea
1889 an act of Parliament was passed
and the sum voted from the treasury
to pay Mrs. Stephens for the remedy
that was to prove so beneficial to the
| public. This remedy consisted, first, of
compound of burned eggshells and
snails; second, a decoction of herbs.
soap and honey; third, pills made of
| burned snails, carrot and burdock
seeds, hips and haWs, ETC., mingled
| with soap and honey.
| James Graham, who belonged to the
later years of the eighteenth century,
must be credited with pre-eminent
! splendor in quackery. He took house
in the Royal Adelphi Terrace which he
ornamented gorgeously, and inscribed
with the words "TeifipIuni Oesculapio
sacrum,' and here he delivered night
~ lectures, instructing persons how
they could live in health and beauty
| for one hundred years; the admission
fee to the lectures was two guineas A
beautiful young woman, personating
Hebe, added her discourse to his, anu
probably drew more among the disre.
putable parts of his audience; and ii
has been asserted that this was none
other than the woman who afterward
became Lady Hamilton, notorious for
her connection with Nelson This is
certainly not proved. Graham was
marvelously successful, both in London
and Paris, but he was compelled grad
ually to lower his rates of admission,
until at last the fee reached only one
shilling.