618 
THE AMERICAN-SCAN DIN AVIAN REVIEW 
years in the United States, France, and Italy for the relief, education, 
and recreation of the sightless and are known as Lighthouses for the 
Blind. 
Under the stimulus of conditions incident to warfare, the medical 
profession has come to appreciate its obligation to civil communities 
and to recognize more than ever before its opportunities for greater 
public service. Systematic safeguarding of public health is a highly 
characteristic feature of modern applied medical knowledge. From 
a scientific viewpoint, including equipment and auxiliary apparatus 
of all kinds, the standard of medical co-operation in the welfare of 
mankind has never been raised higher than to-day. Yet the dignity 
of the profession was undoubtedly greater and the disciples of Aescu¬ 
lapius probably ranked higher spiritually in the less commercial days 
of the great medical and surgical pioneers who forgot all personal 
advantages in the quest of knowledge for the sake of knowledge itself. 
A striking spontaneous tendency on the part of the medical pro¬ 
fession in America, shown especially in the past ten years, is an 
improved standard of medical education. As a result there are now 
fewer medical schools and fewer practitioners than some years ago, 
and, like everything else worth having, the cost of production of quali¬ 
fied medical men and women has greatly increased. Rural and village 
communities have already begun to feel the shortage of general prac¬ 
titioners, for recent graduates are inclined to follow the call of large 
centers and to identify themselves with co-operative medical enter¬ 
prise, especially in connection with industrial development. A ten¬ 
dency of the profession to be mentioned in this connection manifests 
itself in the increasing number of railway, steamship, and other cor¬ 
poration practitioners. The massing of people in large hotels, col¬ 
leges, clubs and the like, works toward the same end, while a by¬ 
product of the growth of social and fraternal organizations is seen in 
the so-called lodge or panel doctors. Many physicians are now on the 
staffs of private or public health institutes, tuberculosis sanatoria, 
orthopedic institutes, colonies for epileptics, etc.; many others devote 
their time and efforts exclusivelv to laboratorv research, while still 
others act as medical experts in the large drug houses or in chemical 
concerns. Boards of health require the services of medical men; 
insurance companies and life-extension institutes need their assistance 
in the protection of their risks against illness, disablement, and 
untimely death. 
The movement toward specialization in medicine shows no 
decline, and there is no indication of a counter-tendency to return to 
general practice. However, although this age has been called the 
age of specialization, it is really the age of co-operation. Never before 
has so-called team-work been so much in evidence, doctor and dentist, 
surgeon and radiologist, clinician and microscopist, each supplement- 
