INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC HEALTH 153 



tolerable such a regime would be. Local autonomy, 

 nationalistic feeling, the absence of supermen, and 

 human nature's resentment of control imposed from 

 without are a few of the many obstacles which would 

 make it utterly impossible to bring about the hygienic 

 solidarity of the world. But the outlining of an imagin- 

 ary unified system of control at least serves as a back- 

 ground against which to observe influences which have 

 been going on for a long time in the world, but which of 

 late have gained greatly in definiteness of organization. 

 In some sense, every one of the things which have been 

 suggested as a part of an imaginary world organization 

 is being to a degree accomplished. 



Thus there are more than 445 medical schools scat- 

 tered throughout the world. They represent the in- 

 fluence of three systems of medicine: the British, the 

 Latin, and the German. These systems have been dis- 

 tributed in accordance with well-organized principles of 

 national influence. The British system has prestige 

 throughout the Empire, subject to modification espe- 

 cially in Canada. French medicine prevails in the Latin 

 countries of Europe and in Central and South America; 

 while the German plan is largely followed in Scandi- 

 navia, Austria, eastern Europe, in the Balkan regions, 

 and in Japan. In the United States a combination of 

 British and German methods has been gradually devel- 

 oped with certain features which are not found in either 

 of the two European systems. The three national types 

 are yielding to internal influences which may be counted 

 upon to produce, not uniformity, but a more cosmo- 

 politan ideal than at present exists anywhere in the 



