these gentlemen were so anxious for the elevation and dignity of the profession why have they not shown their zeal by the adoption of a better system of medical instruction, and a higher standard of acquirements for the degree of Doctor of Medicine? Convention after convention of medical teachers has been held, the last in Washington, last May, and all that has come of them is a few recommendations and resolutions, full of sound and fury, but signifying nothing -recommendations and resolutions which have been forgotten by the very authors of them before the ink was dry with which they were written. The whole thing, to a man who has been behind the scenes and knows how the thunder is made, is ridiculous and disgusting. Rub civet on the thought, good apothecary.

Now, sir, to show how inconsistently men can act in matters of such grave importance, allow me to mention a few facts of directly personal application. I was in New Orleans at the meeting of the Americal Medical Association in 1869, when that famous resolution was passed recommending one hundred and twenty dollars as the minimum charge for a course of lectures. It was introduced, together with a long preamble, by Dr. Gaillard, of Louisville. Now Dr. Gaillard is doubtless a high-toned and honorable man. Besides, he is a brave man, and lost an arm in the cause of the Confederate States. Far be it from me, therefore, to utter any reflections against him. But his public acts may be brought into court without impropriety. Well, Dr. Gaillard went back to Louisville and organized a new college and issued a circular which I read in the Louisville Journal. In the circular which was issued before the echoes of his invectives against cheap schools had ceased to reverberate along the streets of the Crescent City, he annouuced, indeed, that the price of a course of tickets should be one hundred and twenty dollars. But he made some most extraordinary and significant exceptions. In the first place he announced that all students who were the sons of physicians would be received without charge. This he did under the pretended sanction of the Hippocratic oath. Now it so happens that I have read the Hippocratic oath as well as Dr. Gaillard, and I have failed to find in it any such clause as Dr. Gaillard refers I find, indeed, a clause to this effect, namely: "I hold myself bound to impart the art of medicine, without charge, to the children of my preceptor." This I find, but this is a very different thing from the wholesale charity advertised by Dr. Gaillard. But the end is not yet. Not even this heavy draught is sufficient to exhaust Dr. Gaillard's abounding benevolence; but he offers in addition a free scholarship to every congressional district in the whole uation, calling to mind the famous passage,

to.

No pent up Utica contracts our powers,
But the whole boundless continent is ours.

But Dr. Gaillard has an eye to business as well as benevolence, and he does not content himself with the simple announcement

5

which I have mentioned, but he places the congressional scholarships under the patronage of the representatives of the respective districts; and he takes care to send a very imposing document, decked out in all the glittering array of fancy letters and red seals, to each of these aforesaid congressmen, whereupon each patriotic gentleman feels specially complimented, and, having it in his power to do a graceful act, determines to do it gracefully. So in a few days out comes an advertisement in one or more papers of his district magnifying the excellence of Dr. Gaillard's school, and stating how applications for the important scholarship should be addressed. I want it distinctly understood that I am not drawing on my imagination for my facts. I not only read Dr. Gaillard's advertisement in the Louisville Journal, but I have seen one of these documents with the fancy letters and the red seals, which had been sent to one Buck, by the grace of the reconstruction laws and the aid of negro votes, member of congress for this district; and I have read an advertisement of the sort I have mentioned in the carpet-bag newspaper, published in this city.

Now, sir, it seems to me that this makes a free list of somewhat formidable dimensions to be offered by a school organized under the special supervision of a man who has made such a fuss about college fees as Dr. Gaillard has. Just look at it for a moment: all the sons of all the physicians in the land, plus one additional student for each congressional district, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the British Possessions to the Gulf of Mexico.

In the New Orleans meeting, next after Dr. Gaillard, no one took more interest in this matter, or made more or more forcible speeches upon it, than my old friend and respected teacher, Prof. Eve. Well, only one year afterwards, Nashville was forced to reduce her fees for a course of lectures to fifty dollars. Soon after she offered a place in her faculty to Prof. Eve. Here was a test case-an admirable opportunity for furnishing an example of faithful adherence to principle. Here, in a word, was a chair in a cheap college, offered to the great advocate of high fees. Of course, Prof. Eve respectfully declined to be contaminated by any such questionable association. Not a bit of it, Mr. President. He quietly accepted the Professorship which was offered him, low fees, un-ethical practices, and all; and if he has indulged in any more declamations against cheap colleges, I have not heard of it.

But, Mr. President, not to dwell at any greater length on matters of personal detail, the most significant fact in relation to our American medical colleges is this, that nearly all of these institutions are conducted as private speculations, with a view to the pecuniary emolument of their professors. They are but slightly responsible to the State, even if the State had, as most emphatically it has not, any organ which could take proper cognizance of them, and form some just estimate of their excellencies and of their defects.

Neither are they under the control of the medical profession, which would seem to be the proper authority to arrange for them the plan of medical instruction, and to give direction to their general policy. In a word, they are a law unto themselves, and are only amenable to public, and to professional opinion in an indefinite and general sort of way. That the medical education conferred by the operation of such a system is not of the highest character is not to be wondered at. The true wonder, indeed, is that affairs medical are not in a worse condition than they are. Still, in all conscience, they are bad enough-have been bad enough for years, and are yearly growing worse.

But what is to be done? It was to oppose this constantly advancing tide of professional demoralization that the American Medical Association was organized nearly a quarter of a century ago. This association commenced the work which it had set itself to do by making certain recommendations to the faculties of the colleges, advising longer sessions, better facilities for instruction, and a higher standard for graduation. The college faculties listened with respectful attention, joined dutifully in the general chorus of admiration with which a long suffering profession received the promise of better times, and, then went quietly on in the old beaten paths which they were accustomed to tread. Finding, after a few years, that recommendations and exhortations were not prolific of the good fruit of reform which they had been expected to produce, the association began to inquire if it was not possible to do something else, but the more the matter was examined, the more it was seen that the association and the profession which it represented, were entirely powerless to interfere directly with the management of the colleges. Again and again it has been decided that the powers of the association are simply advisory, and not to any extent nor in any way whatever compulsory. And the association, like the great lubberly good-natured monster which it is, has blundered along uttering in one form or another, a great deal of good advice, but accomplishing precious little in the way of substantial progress, presenting, indeed, to the eyes of an admiring world a very notable example of a thorough proficiency in the great modern accomplishment of how not to do it. So it was that the New Orleans resolution, fixing one hundred and twenty dollars as the minimum cost of a course of tickets, was advisory, and not mandatory. And, like most other advice which is given without being sought, nobody at all paid any attention to it, and it has already passed

Out of the ages of worldly weather,
Forgotten of all men altogether.

At Washington, last May, a higher game was attempted. Perhaps the medical wisdom assembled there was infected by the bad moral influences of the place, and the contagion of congressional example. At any rate some doctor from the great State of Texas offered there a memorable pair of resolutions:

Resolved, That the American Medical Association has the right to fix the fees of medical colleges.

Resolved, That if any college charge less than one hundred dollars for a full course of lectures, the professors and graduates of such college shall be denied membership in this association.

Now, I confess that I should admire the coolness and audacity of these resolutions, only that it happens that they are not original. It is related of some of the early settlers, in some part of New England, puritans, perhaps, who came over in the Mayflower, that on one occasion they held a public meeting, and resolved as follows: First-That the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. Secondly-That the Lord has made the earth for His saints. Thirdly-That we are the saints.

But notwithstanding the evident want of originality in our Texas doctor, and of lawful jurisdiction in the association, the resolutions were adopted in our monster association's usual indolent and amiable way. They were not allowed, however, to stay adopted. Dave Yandell, who runs a cheap school at Louisville, moved a reconsideration, which was had, and the whole thing ignominiously laid on the table, where it is to be hoped it will be allowed to remain. I should like to know, Mr. President, by what authority the American Medical Profession, or the American Medical Association, have undertaken to poke their noses into the private affairs of the colleges. Do the colleges belong to them? Have they invested their dollars in college stock? I trow not, sir, and I must be allowed to add that it seems to me to be an immense stretch of audacity for them to seek in this way to meddle with property that belongs to other people.

But if the medical profession have no right of control over the medical colleges, there is one thing, at least, which they can control, and which they ought to control, and that is the terms of admission into their own ranks. This is not simply a privilege, but a most solemn and important duty; and I undertake to say that when the profession discharges this duty as it ought to be done, we will hear no more complaint of the short-comings of colleges-no more complaint of low fees-no more complaint of incompetent and ignoIant doctors. How this is to be done, I have already indicated in my system of censorship, and will not dwell upon it now. It is a matter of very small importance whether the colleges charge much or little for the instruction of students; but whether the instruction given is what it ought to be, is a matter of very great importance. It matters very little how any man who applies for a place in the medical profession has contrived to obtain his medical knowledge; but the question above every other question, before he is admitted to professional brotherhood and recognition is this: Has he got the medical knowledge he lays claim to in adequate amount, and of proper quality? Let this receive favorable answer, and it is hardly

necessary to ask whether he has ever seen a college or not. If he comes arrayed in the panoply of our science, he has his wedding garment on, and the lord of the feast must open the door and let him in.

Now, Mr. President, will high fees secure the fullness of knowledge, and the high qualifications which we ought to insist upon ? To ask such a question is to answer it.

On

There are several special points in Dr. Weatherly's address which I would like to notice, but my remarks have already occupied too much of your time. I must say, however, that I cannot see the difference in principle between free common education and free professional education, upon which the doctor lays so much stress. the contrary, I see very clearly that every argument that can be urged in the one case can be applied also, and with equal propriety, to the other. It is not necessary, he says, that every man should be made a doctor. Certainly not, and the advocates of free medical education have never pretended that it was. There is no danger of any great over-supply of doctors under any circumstances. The inexorable laws and practices of supply and demand will very effectually regulate any trouble of that sort. Do not understand ine, Mr. President, to be an advocate of free medical education at all. I am not certain that I am in favor of free common schools even. There is, at any rate, something to be said on both sides of the question. But I do undertake to say that every reason which can be adduced in favor of free common school education, applies with even greater force to professional education; that the higher education is both more in need and more deserving of aid than the lower. How is it, then, I think I hear everybody exclaim, that you have taken the lead in making the Medical College of Alabama a free school? It is a question which admits of easy answer. I find myself a member of the faculty of the college, and obliged to take some part in the management of it. I appreciate fully the deplorable college system which I have attempted to describe. I do not like it, but I am powerless to change it. The colleges in the great West have charged low fees for years. Of late the contagion has spread with fearful rapidity. Louisville had come down rather than see her students drawn off to Cincinnati. Nashville had pleaded almost with tears in her eyes, for a better system, and failing to obtain it, she also had reduced her fees, and Memphis had followed her example. What, under the circumstances, was Mobile to do? There was only one thing left that she could do, and that was to bring down her prices also, and she did it. And I dare to say, Mr. President, in the face of men and angels, that she did right, and I am willing, nay I am proud, to shoulder my share of the responsibility. Not that I would not like to be paid for teaching. I would like it exceedingly well, but, under the circumstances, that is simply impossible, and so-not that I love Cæsar less, but that I