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��tliis class of practitioners do so out of pure ig- norance, and ttiey liavc a rjgbt to ask that the law shall give them Home proteclion agaiust too groes impositioD. Those who olyeet that this bill iiapoaes the very minimuiD of qualification (and uoj* who know bow brief a study and how limited knowledge a diploma from a ' IcgaUy qualifled medical college ' may tealify to, will be very apt to make tliia triticism) may be reminded that beginniogs must be small ; that the public is not yet educated in this intel- ligent state of Massachusetts to believe that the ignorant patients are entitled to any protec- tion, or that the ignorant doctors are not en- titled to the same recognition as any other boaineaa-man pursuing hia calllug under the disadvantages of the lack of early education.
It will be noticed that afler 1886 the board will examine all applicants; and, although it cannot purify as much as might be desirable the present body medical, yet it can then guard the gates agaiust future intnisions of ignoramuses. The strength of different ' achoola ' of medicine will undoubtedly compel some distasteful asso- ciations upon the board of examiners ; but the imiMrtance of the interests to be served ought to stifle jealousies, and override etiquette. Puriflealion of the profession can but tend to its unification and to the development of the truth. If we can be assured of a competent knowledge of the fundamental medical sciences in ail who undertake to practise it, mere 'pathiea' and fads roust inevitably die out
Iiin the profession, and outside of it can e little practical weight. DIMtNo FROM what the honorary curator of insect- collections of the national museum Ks in to-day's issue, there is no im[>ortant difference between his views and those to whose words he has objected. All agree that collections of insects need vigilant and unre- mitting care, and that any museum which does not guarantee that cave is no fit depository of valuable collections. The question whether national museum practically offers such
��guaranty is a nice one. Judging fiom the past history of the national collections in general, one would unhesitatingly say it did not. Judging, further, from Mr. Riley's own statements of the present condition of things, the same answer may fairly be given ; for a large and growing collection, already one of the most important in the country, with no person in charge, or working under direction, whose services the museum can comynand, is plainly not a place which has any right to invite the deposit of unique objects. Not- withstanding this, the recent growth of the museum gives large, one is tempted to say abundant, hope that what has been accom- plished means not only permanence, but prog- ress ; that, dependent as it is absolutely upon annual congressional appropriations, these will not entirely fail, since its hold upon both popular and congressional favor is such as to command respect and a certain amount of support. Though it may suSer temporary curtailment at times, it is nh*eady too strong to suffer long neglect or to be overthrown.
Nor must we forget that it shows hereby Its very right to exist. In no country, more than in a republic, have institutions been more severely subjected to the law of ' the survival of the fittest." With rare exceptions, all the scientific bureaus of the government are dependent for very life, from year to year, on the will of the people. The coast-survey even, with its extensive corps of picked men and all its refinement of work, unsurpassed by that of any similar body elsewhere, exists by virtue of an annual appropriation. How- ever foreign this may be to the administrative ideas of European nations, it is thoroughly ingrained in our policy, a piece of the unwrit- ten law of the land, a substantial part of democratic life. If through its agency the scientific bureaus of our government have reached their present status, and their work has received auch generous praise abroad, even to self-reproach, to what may we not look forward when we consider that they have gained their present ataudiug through the
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