The physician who can assist in the amelioration of society by administering to human ills which are the result of unwise laws, is accomplishing as much good as if he writes prescriptions or _bleeds_ patients. The sooner everybody recognizes the fact that the time has come to deflect the current of ambition from the practice of medicine as a means of making a living, the sooner will untold suffering be lessened, and there is no honest-minded physician who does not heartily agree with me. Mercenary persons, and ignorant or unscrupulous doctors who run diploma mills, may criticise severely the honest sentiments here expressed, but the truth is so apparent, that he who runs may see the inevitable consequence of this unhealthy competition. Professors of colleges have a direct interest in the ignorance and incompetency of their graduates, because they are the means of calling them into consultation on every possible occasion in trifling ailments, and if the disease belongs to some specialty, they have the cases entirely turned over to them, because, in the mind of the incompetent and newly-made doctor, the professor who was the means of getting him a diploma, poses as the _beau ideal_ of medical wisdom. In this way it becomes exceedingly profitable to be a professor. If there are not enough medical colleges in a community to afford places for the ambitious, it is considered to be one of the best-paying financial investments for a company of physicians to start one, and in most of these concerns it is easier to get a diploma as a doctor than to learn to be a good dressmaker or shoemaker. Hence there is only one remedy to control the educational aspect of this evil, and that is to take medical colleges entirely out of the hands of private individuals and make the State the only source of the necessary credentials to practice medicine. An American system of medical education fostered by the State would be productive of grand results, because, under the shadow of our free institutions, the mind transcends the circumscribed sphere of despotism. This has already been proven in numerous instances, notwithstanding unfavorable surroundings. Forming the galaxy of great names that illumine the milky way of science, there are none brighter than a Gross, a Flint, a Sims, and some others. These were great American authors and physicians, who never pretended anything else; they never dreamt of the Don Quixotic escapade of pretending to be American professors while they appended to their names initials or abbreviations of questionable credit from foreign institutions. The brilliancy of true genius was their only passport to fame. CHAPTER II. DELUSIONS AS TO THE CURATIVE VALUE OF DRUGS.