und that
the students in regular schools in 1883-84 numbered 10,600; in 1893-94
they had increased to 17,601. Students in homoeopathic schools in
1883-84 were 1,267; in 1893-94, 1,666. The number of eclectic students
was stationary at the two periods. The increase during the period from
1893-94 to the present time has been at about the same ratio.

These figures reveal more plainly than words the existing condition of
affairs, which must, too, in the nature of things, continue until that
time when all the States fall into line and resolve to adopt a four
years' course of not less than eight months.

To make yet another comparison, the total number of medical schools in
Austria and Germany, with a population exceeding that of this country,
is twenty-nine. Great Britain, with more than half the population, has
seventeen; while Russia, with one hundred million inhabitants, has
nine. Of course we do not argue that America, with her immense
territory and scattered population, does not need greater facilities
for the study of medicine than do thickly inhabited countries, as
Germany and Great Britain; but we do contend that when a city of the
size of St. Louis has as many schools as Russia, the craze for
multiplying these schools is being carried to absurd and harmful
lengths. However, that the number of schools and their yearly supply
of graduates of medicine are far beyond the demand is perfectly well
known to all. The Medical Record and other medical journals have fully
discussed and insisted upon that point for a considerable time. The
real question at issue is by what means to remedy or at least to
lessen the bad effects of the system as quickly as possible. The first
and most important steps toward this desirable consummation have been
already taken, and when a four years' course comes into practice
throughout the country, the difficult problem of checking excessive
competition will at any rate be much nearer its solution. Why should
France, Germany, Great Britain and other European nations consider
that a course of from five to seven years is not too long to acquire a
good knowledge of medical work, while in many parts of America two or
three years' training is esteemed ample for the manufacture of a
full-fledged doctor? Such methods are unfair both to the public and to
the medical profession, and the result is that in numerous instances
the short-time graduate has either to learn most of the practical part
of his dut