The case is very different here. In many places in the United States, public opinion has elevated quack practitioners above regular physicians. Perhaps no city in the world affords better means for clinical instruction than the city of New York. In her numerous hospitals, diseases of all kinds, in all their various forms and stages, can be seen and studied ad libitum under as competent teachers as are found in any part of the world; but the brief period allotted to the common student does not give him time to enjoy the full benefit of these institutions j and often a pecuniary inability opposes its stern barriers and wholly deprives the student of any participation in these advantages. In this land of boasted liberty, public opinion is opposed to arbitrary rules, and the right of every man to medicate whomsoever he pleases is everywhere conceded. Whether he study little or much, with or without a diploma, he is under no restraint, and our State governments always appear disposed to allow quackery its largest liberty. I know that these are mortifying reflections: but they are nevertheless true. Still, however, some allowance
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PROFESSIONAL ACQUIREMENTS.
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