Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
XoYeniber,  1913.  j 
How  to  Study  Medicine. 
513 
acid.  The  process  is  catalyzed  by  organic  alkaline  bases,  such  as 
analin.  The  bromcamphorcarbonic  acid  has  two  optically  active 
forms  corresponding  to  the  left  and  right  tartaric  acids  of  Pasteur. 
Both  of  them  are  catalyzed  equally  by  optically  inactive  bases,  but 
one  of  them  is  more  rapidly  catalyzed  than  the  other  by  chinin  as 
catalyzer,  and  the  other  is  more  rapidly  catalyzed  by  chinidin  than  the 
one.  Chinin  and  chinidin  are  themselves  optically  active  substances, 
and  thus  it  is  found  that  an  optically  active  catalyzer  is  capable 
of  differentiating  in  catalysis  between  two  optically  active  com- 
pounds and  can  catalyze  the  decomposition  of  one  of  them  more 
than  that  of  the  other  in  a  mixture  of  both,  as  Pasteur  found  with 
Pencillinm  glaucum  and  the  tartaric  acids. 
HOW  TO  STUDY  MEDICINE.1 
By  Hexry  S.  Pritchett, 
President  of  the  Carnegie  Foundation. 
To-day  there  are  some  hundreds  of  thousands  of  young  men  and 
youths  in  our  country  who  are  thinking  more  or  less  seriously  of 
adopting  some  profession,  and  many  thousands  of  these  are  looking 
toward  the  profession  of  medicine  or  surgery.  Hundreds  of  others 
will  be  attracted  toward  that  profession  by  the  advertisements  of 
medical  schools,  for  medical  advertising  is  a  business  in  our  country. 
A  large  number  of  young  men  who  are  clerks  in  country  stores  or 
assistants  in  railway  offices  have  been  led  to  undertake  the  study 
and  practice  of  medicine  as  a  result  of  the  alluring  inducements 
held  out  by  these  advertisements,  inducements  which  paint  the  life 
of  the  physician  and  surgeon  in  glowing  colors  and  the  receipts  from 
professional  fees  in  the  most  optimistic  vein. 
The  spectacle  which  this  presents — that  is  to  say,  the  spectacle  of 
men  being  led  into  a  profession  so  serious  and  important  as  that 
of  the  physician  and  surgeon  by  the  mere  influence  of  an  advertise- 
ment— is  something  which  one  cannot  see  in  any  other  country. 
It  exists  in  the  United  States  because  of  the  excessive  number  of 
medical  schools  in  this  country  and  the  -resulting  competition  for 
students.  There  are  nearly  as  many  medical  schools  in  the  United 
States  as  in  all  of  the  rest  of  the  civilized  world  put  together.  These 
1  Reprinted  from  The  Outlook,  Oct.  i,  1910.  pp.  272-275. 
