ause of
the strong city-to-country movement. The secretary of the Harvard Medical
faculty notes this: "With the advent of automobiles and the desire of
people to live in the country, serious problems in medicine are frequently
presented to the country practitioners."

The need of educated physicians in country communities is well stated by
Dr. Means of the Ohio Medical School: "The condition of medical practice
in many of our country communities is deplorable. I can recall any number
of places where there are two, three, four and five physicians and not one
of them has had any post-graduate work from date of graduation, and none
of them known to attend medical societies. Their professional work is on a
par, no better, no worse, than that of their ancestors. I always feel that
such communities sorely need an up-to-date physician who has been educated
along the lines of modern sanitation and general medicine. The demand for
a medical education has grown to such proportions in the last ten years
that graduates, after having spent so much time and money, do not care to
go into country practice. The five years or more that they spend in city
environments while completing their medical education almost unfits them
for country life. The result is that our cities are filling up with young
physicians who can scarcely make a living. These are men of character and
proficiency who would give tone to any country community and supply a
public want."

_The Unique Rewards of Country Practice_

There are, to be sure, certain serious disadvantages under which the
country physician labors, such as distance from hospitals and nurses; but
these are overbalanced by the manifest need and greater opportunity. The
situation is acute. For earnest college men, willing to invest their lives
in rural leadership, this constitutes a real call to a life of service
which may be God's own call to them. No one who has ever read Ian
Maclaren's story of Dr. MacLure, "A Doctor of the Old School," can fail to
appreciate the peculiar devotion of country people to their trusted
physician "who for nearly half a century had been their help in sickness,
and had beaten back death time after time from their door."

After the funeral of the good old doctor who had so long sacrificed his
comfort for the people of Drumtochty, Lord Kilspindie from Muirtown Castle
voiced at the grave this tribute to the faithful physician of country
folk: "Friends of Drumtochty, it