It would be easy to illustrate the foregoing proposition from general history, from the progress of nations, or even from the contracted area of individual experience. But we will confine ourselves to an illustration more directly in relation to our immediate object—namely, the present condition and prospects of medical science. There are, no doubt, many persons who view the present state of Medical Science as little better than the triumphant domination of a conjectural art, which has long obscured, and is still very imperfectly representing, a beautiful science; and that the perception of the true relations which it bears to such science has been veiled by the impression that it involved some mystery from which the general public, who were most interested in its development, were necessarily excluded. There have been at all times individuals, perhaps, sufficiently astute to see the real truth of the matter; but still they were rare exceptions, and did not prevent Mystery from conferring, on a very considerable section of people, the social advantage of a gainful profession; that property being enhanced, of course, in that it ministered to an ignorant public. But, even in an early stage, correctives to an equivocally-earned advantage began to appear; for a thing which had no character but its indefiniteness, and its apparent facility of acquisition, obtained many followers: the supply, such as it was, was thus so close in relation to the demand, that what in theory seemed necessarily very gainful, in practice, on the whole, proved anything but a lucrative profession. As contrasted with any other, or a variety of commercial pursuits, medical men were neither so affluent, nor always so secure of their position. Retiring competency in well-conducted callings has, in a rich country, been rather the rule. We fear, in the medical profession it is the exception; which, we are apprehensive (in its bereaved dependents), contributes more applicants for eleemosynary relief than any other. This surely is not a state of things which can be well made worse. Public ignorance, the _real mischief_, has, in the meantime, been left uninformed; and any attempt to enlighten it has too often been branded with some kind or other of corrupt motive. Public positions have been conferred without competition—the surest test of fitness or excellence; and the public have been further doubly barred out, in that the chance of eliciting men of spirit and enthusiasm has been diminished, by the first positions having been often rendered contingent on the payment of money in the right quarter.