Whether or not socialized medicine ever comes to pass, it would seem to the writer that the province and duty of the American Institute is to educate men in the philosophy and materia medica of homoeopathy. To find ways and means definitely, adequately, and positively to supply everything necessary for the conversion of any inquiring interested allopath as well as to supply whatever is necessary to reclaim the many of our own backsliding brothers.
Through the influence of the various branches of the Academy and Laymans Leagues, etc., there will ensue a growing demand for homoeopathy. When and as that time comes, somehow or other we must be able to produce the men to practise it properly. There is nothing so pitiful as a poor homoeopath, and there is nothing as marvelous in medicine as the results obtained by the properly prescribed remedy.
We must have better homoeopaths. The qualified homoeopath should be certified in order that he may be recommended to the public, and he must be identifiable, such as through the Certificate of Fellowship in the Academy, which is easily recognized and understood by anyone seeing it. Those who do not qualify must be further instructed until they can. This can be done either by the proper functions of the Institute, through the already established Foundation at Washington, or through the Farrington or English Correspondence Courses. There should be no objection to such a program by anyone who wishes to become a proficient prescriber and recognized as such by the public.
In case socialized medicine does come, the homoeopaths will be in a better position to demand their rights, and especially as they will be recognized largely by an organized body as specialists in medical therapeutics. Let no one who can qualify as a real homoeopath-a therapeutic specialist-fail to apply to the Academy for certification and fellowship therein. FOREST HILLS, MASS.
