Tue Microscopes. 133 
proportion than is found in any other country on the globe. 
What is the remedy for these threatening disasters? Stricter 
requirements from our medical colleges. We do not mean by 
this, the rejection of a larger number of those who apply for 
graduation at the close of their college life, but the rejection of 
a much larger number of those who apply for admission. We 
do not mean the former because, first, a full course of instruc- 
tion, in every medical college, should consist of at least three 
years, with from seven to nine months’ study each year; second, 
a person who is capable of passing the entrance examinations— 
severe as these should be—should also be capable of acquiring 
in this term of study sufficient knowledge to enable him to pass 
a most rigid final examination. The trouble is not in the large 
number of our graduating classes, but rather in the large num- 
ber of the classes just admitted. This preliminary examination 
should be not far, if any, below that required to enter a first- 
grade literary college for the degree of bachelor of arts. In 
other words it should embrace such subjects as English language, 
including the grammatical and rhetorical analysis of selections, 
and the writing and correcting of essays; Geography; Mathe- 
matics, arithmetic, algebra, geometry ; Latin, at least an amount 
equivalent to one year’s work at school; Natural philosophy; 
Botany. In this way only can the profession be relieved of a 
host of hungry incompetents whose only claim for recognition 
is their possession of a degree. A class of students admitted on 
substantially such terms as given above will take in and assim- 
ilate more knowledge in three years than the average unpre- 
pared student could do in nearly double that time. The result 
is inevitable. One-half of the present number of applicants 
would seek their more congenial spheres, and would make hon- 
orable citizens as farmers and mechanics; the remainder would, 
by their fitness, demand a higher grade of work on the part of 
the instructor, and thus teacher and pupil be mutually profited, 
only in the end to result in the greatest profit to the public at 
large. Each graduate then, by his college training, will be emi- 
nently fitted to scientifically investigate disease, to ascertain its 
cause, and to prevent its development. In that day the doctor 
will be not only a physician but also a scientist and a philan- 
thropist. 
