How  to  Study  Medicine. 
(  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\  November,  1913. 
medical  schools  in  some  instances  are  splendid  institutions  abreast 
of  the  science  and  the  practice  of  the  day,  such  as  those  of  the  Johns 
Hopkins  University,  of  Harvard,  and  of  Ann  Arbor.  But  the 
majority  are  proprietary  schools — that  is  to  say,  schools  which  are 
owned  by  an  individual  or  by  a  group  of  individuals,  and  which  de- 
pend for  their  continued  existence  upon  securing  a  considerable 
number  of  students.  This  solicitation  is  made  in  most  cases  through 
advertisements  which  are  intended  to  catch  the  eye  of  the  boy  or 
the  young  man  who  is  tired  of  his  present  job  and  is  anxious  to 
find  another. 
The  consequences  of  this  overmultiplication  of  medical  schools 
striving  to  get  students  has  resulted  in  a  great  overproduction  of 
physicians  and  surgeons.  There  are  more  physicians  to-day  in  the 
United  States  to  each  ten  thousand  inhabitants  than  in  any  other 
country  in  the  world;  and,  unfortunately,  the  vast  majority  of  these 
men  have  had  no  adequate  preparation  in  their  profession,  and  a  very 
large  proportion  of  them  have  gone  into  it  with  little  conception  of 
its  obligations  and  its  demands.  As  a  result,  the  living  which  the 
average  doctor  is  able  to  make  is  a  meagre  one,  and  in  the  little 
towns  of  two  or  three  thousand  inhabitants,  where  ordinarily  one 
finds  from  five  to  ten  physicians,  the  practitioner  can  expect  only 
a  bare  living.  The  situation  is  one  calling  so  strongly  for  improve- 
ment, and  one  in  which  the  youth  who  goes  into  the  profession  is  so 
often  the  victim  of  false  representations,  that  I  venture  to  state  a 
few  of  the  preliminary  facts  which  the  young  man  who  is  looking 
toward  medicine  ought  to  take  into  account. 
First  of  all,  no  young  man  who  is  thinking  of  the  profession  of 
medicine  should  allow  himself  to  be  influenced  by  the  commercial 
argument.  Medicine  is  a  profession,  not  a  business,  and  the  man 
who  goes  into  it,  whether  he  gain  a  large  practice  or  a  small  one, 
must  give  out  much  more  than  he  receives,  not  necessarily  in  money, 
but  in  effort  and  sympathy  and  sacrifice.  The  man  who  is  seeking 
a  business  which  will  bring  him  money  should  look  elsewhere. 
Second,  no  man,  whether  young  or  of  more  mature  age,  should 
choose  a  school  in  which  to  study  medicine  through  an  advertisement. 
You  may  be  sure  that  the  institution  which  seeks  to  secure  your 
attendance  as  a  student  through  alluring  advertisements  is  in  every 
case  a  bad  place  for  study,  and  that  the  very  fact  of  these  specious 
advertisements  is  a  proof  of  its  weakness  and  incompetency.  If  you 
have  decided  to  study  medicine,  find  out  from  the  best-informed 
