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intelligence is more widely and generally diffused. Competent and 

 skillful physicians must, ere long, be properly appreciated in nearly 

 all parts of the Union, and if they be not too numerous, their ser- 

 vices will be adequately compensated. 



Again, it has been objected that the necessity of an increased 

 number of physicians is such, that the schools must supply them, 

 not, it is admitted by all, well educated, but instructed so far as the 

 circumstances of the case will allow. So far from coinciding with 

 this opinion, your committee are convinced that the present rate at 

 which graduates are furnished by our medical colleges, exceeds the 

 wants of the country. Have the members of this Association now 

 present, coming as they do, from every quarter of the land, passed 

 through sections devoid of doctors ? Have they not, on the contrary, 

 traversed many a town in which one-half of the number of physicians, 

 if well educated, would be adequate to the performance of all the 

 professional duties in a better manner than they are at present ful- 

 filled? 



If the number of physicians were too small to meet the necessities 

 of the country, it is reasonable to presume that the medical faculties 

 of our schools would constantly receive applications from persons 

 wishing for a medical man to settle among them. But what is the 

 fact! are not such applications exceedingly rare? On the contrary, 

 is it not almost universally true, that the principal source of anxiety 

 harassing the minds of young physicians, is the difficulty of obtain- 

 ing situations where their services are needed? Do they not, in 

 many instances, travel hundreds, perhaps thousands of miles, in 

 search of a place in which there is a fair prospect of supporting 

 themselves? Go where they will, do they not, as a general rule, 

 find every position pre-occupied ? Are not all vacancies immediately 

 supplied, and do not two or three physicians frequently settle in a 

 village, the population of which will hardly furnish a sufficiently 

 remunerative occupation for one? Are there not numerous instances 

 in which the difficulty of finding a suitable residence induces the 

 young practitioner to abandon his profession, and seek in other and 

 less dignified pursuits, that prosperity which, from its crowded con- 

 dition he is no longer permitted to expect from his legitimate voca- 

 tion? 



The population of France is about 35 millions, and, during the 

 past year, according to the London Medical Gazette, the number of 

 students in her three schools which are vested with authority to 

 confer degrees, was 1050. Now, on the supposition that one-half 



