132 Tue Microscorr. 
with a frankness that is surprising tells his methods to compe- 
tent co-workers and asks their aid. It is gratifying to remember 
that nearly every scientific discovery has had to force its way 
in the face of the bitterest opposition. In the case of Pasteur 
there are unusual difficulties to overcome and it is evident that 
nothing less than an overwhelming mass of clinical statistics 
will ever convince both the profession and the laity of the value 
of his brilliant discovery. Certainly such an eminent man as 
Dr. Valentine Mott is not likely to be carried away by any craze. 
He just returns to us from Paris after careful study of the hy- 
drophobia treatment, very sanguine in his belief of its efficacy. 
So firm is this belief that he brought with him a rabbit, inocu- 
lated by Pasteur, to be used for further propagation of the virus. 
These researches, coupled with those mentioned in our April 
number pertaining to the cure and prevention of phthisis, tend 
to confirm us in the belief that the future has in store for us a 
new era in the practice of medicine. The principal study will 
be not how to cure, but. how to prevent disease. As honorable 
as the profession of medicine may be at the present time, this 
change will make it seven-fold more noble and will, then, indeed, 
make each physician a benefactor of his race. 
THE OVERCROWDING OF THE MepicaL Proression.—If the 
principal business of the medical man is to study the cause of 
disease and apply the prophylactic remedy, it must follow, says 
the reader, that there will be no work for such a vast army of 
annual recruits as furnished by our medical colleges. Already 
there is relatively a greater increase in the number of graduates 
in medicine than of the population. These two considerations 
make us fear that a severe struggle for existence must be the 
lotof the average physician of the future. If naturally endowed 
with unusual abilities, or if possessed of sufficient wealth to en- 
able him to continue his studies over a term of years and still 
have an income left to aid in getting a start in life, he will stand 
a fair chance to gain a high position with its accompanying 
recompense. But for all others, one of two things remains, 
they must drop out by the wayside or be content with a very 
moderate subsistence. About 3,750 medical students graduated 
in 1885, and this, too, when in the United States there is one 
physician to less than six hundred inhabitants, a far greater 
