Every point of the body has nerve filaments which play their part in the whole network of telegraphic lines. The vasomotor nerves practically control the distribution of the blood supply and all voluntary actions, while the sympathetic system controls to a large extent the internal functions. Many physicians believe that a number of diseases, especially neuralgias, are due to pressure, or irritation of the nerve affected; but the method of manipulation of the osteopath for the relief of such pressure is distinctive of the osteopathic system.

Other schools believe with the osteopath that, after all, nature does all the curing, the only difference being in the means which are used to aid nature. Whatever is best in all treatment is that which will aid nature; sometimes, check; sometimes, stimulate, as the case requires. The patient does not care a snap for theory, but for results, and the osteopath has given very creditable results in practice.

There are about 8,000 practitioners in the United States, and most of them doing well. The school possibly has suffered somewhat by the low standard formerly set for entrance and the low standards or lack of standards of study, as a result of which a number of incompetent practitioners are credited to the school. Of late years the course of study and general requirement have been brought up to the standard of other medical colleges, and this has developed skilled modern practitioners who study bacteriology, hygiene, disinfectants, surgery, obstetrics, etc., in the same thorough way as the students of the regular colleges.

The cost of tuition and other expenses are about the same as in the preparation for regular practice.

The osteopathic practitioner is legalized in all the states, except Maine.

From a business point of view a young man or woman of strong personality can do well in osteopathy. The field is not overcrowded. People are generally feeling kindly towards the system because there has been so much irrational empirical dosing with syrups, elixirs and pills until "they are sick of it." The osteopath has been able to extract a larger fee for treatment than the general practitioner has been able to get in similar cases.

One might consider here the opposition that a young man may meet in practice. The regular medical profession does not look kindly upon the osteopath, and makes matters unpleasant for the isolated osteopath. This feeling is not so much that they do not recognize the osteopath as a legitimate practitioner, but is due more to the questionable, or, as they call it, "unethical" means used by many osteopaths in advertising. Whether it is right or wrong does not enter into the question, but medical men have a code of ethics which prohibits advertising and which establishes the relations of physicians towards each other. Where the osteopath respects the code of ethics of the physician, he, too, is respected and shown the same fellowship.

Unlicensed Practitioners.

There are other schools of medical and drugless healing whose promoters, for a sufficient fee, promise to equip any student in a few months with their newly discovered science; and there are those who under the guise of religion profess that by the mere expression of a belief in their peculiar system, the believer may perform miraculous cures. Reputable journals carry their

alluring advertisements and it is fortunate that the common sense of conservative people has been crystalized into laws which make it impossible for any one to become a licensed practitioner who has not taken the prescribed training as described in the next chapter. One contemplating the healing profession as a vocation should select one of the systems that is recognized and legally licensed, and after this decision is made, should select a college with a high standard of efficiency.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE MEDICAL COLLEGES AND THEIR REQUIREMENTS FOR ADMISSION.

In planning for a medical education, consideration must be given to the election of the subjects of study in the high school, the nature of the work which should be done in the one or more years of college work and the selection of the medical college. This subject has been carefully studied within the past few years by several committees composed of medical practitioners and teachers of medicine. Prospective students will do well to consider the reports of these investigating bodies, bearing in mind that in order to get the approval of committees on which are found as many conservatives as progressives, such reports usually give the summaries of compromises and not reflections of well-balanced ideals.

These minimum standards, however, have served the purpose of furnishing a basis for the classification of medical schools. The kind of training that any professional school can give will depend upon the character of the student body as well as upon the kind of equipment and the professional experience and standing of the teachers. Moreover, the graduate of a professional school finds that his initial rating in his profession is made for him by the students who have been graduated from the same school before him. It is good policy, therefore, to attend a school whose graduates are rated

high in the profession, and it is safe to assume that the higher the standard of admission for students, the better the grade of instruction in any professional

school.

The best medical schools are rapidly adopting the standards of admission which are prescribed by the Committee on Education of the American Medical Association; and it is likely that before another four years have passed, most of the medical colleges will require at least two years of college work in addition to the four years of training in the high school.

The recommendations referred to require that a student shall have had a full four years' course of training in an accredited or approved high school or other institution of the same grade, or that he shall present certificates showing that he has passed examinations before a properly authorized examining board, in subjects required in such schools covering at least fourteen units of work, each unit including not less than thirty-six weeks' work of four, or five, forty-minute recitations per week.

The recommendations referred to prescribe that there shall be seven units which shall be required of all students and which may be elected from the following: Reading and Practice of English, 2; Algebra to quadratics, 1; Plane Geometry, 1; Elementary French or German, 2; American History or Civics, 1. Two units of Greek or of Latin may be offered in place of the units in modern languages.

Seven additional units may be selected from the following: Intermediate Algebra, ; Solid Geometry, ; Latin Grammar and Composition, 1; Cæsar, 1; Cicero, 1; Virgil, 1; Nepos, 1; Greek Grammar and Composition,