We are at a loss to understand what Dr. Penrose wishes to prove by his citation of cases in which eminence has been reached—­chiefly, it is to be noticed, in politics or the law—­by persons who have had insufficient opportunities for study.  If the disadvantage was imaginary, where was the merit of overcoming it?  If it was real, as most people would admit, what is the objection to insisting on it as such?  In the great majority of cases it is not overcome, and the result is, that the country is overstocked with men engaged in the practice of professions for which they are inadequately qualified.  As to the skill that is gained by practice, the ripe knowledge that may result from experience, this cannot without a confusion of terms be described as “education.”  It will in general be most surely and rapidly acquired by those who have received the best training, and the great object of our higher educational institutions should be to provide such training—­not, by maintaining a low standard, to facilitate the efforts of those who, from whatever cause, would find it difficult to meet the demands of a higher one.  Such persons may have a claim to encouragement and assistance in their endeavors to reach the mark; but they have no right to expect that the distance shall be regulated to suit their convenience.

Dr. Wood’s admissions in regard to the excellence of the army medical service during the war are seized upon with natural exultation by his opponent, who draws from them a legitimate inference in favor of the general status of medical skill and knowledge throughout the country.  If Dr. Wood really intended to say—­what his language, we confess, would seem to imply—­that the service attained its high state of efficiency in a few months, we do not well see how he is to resist the conclusion thus pressed upon him.  But we conceive the truth to be that either his phraseology or his recollection of the facts was at fault.  It is well known that at the beginning of the war it was impossible to find competent surgeons in anything like the number that was needed, and that the examining boards were consequently forced to be ridiculously lenient.  We know of an able surgeon who after a battle found that he had not a single assistant in his corps who could be trusted to perform an operation.  This state of matters was the direct result of the imperfect education given in the schools.  Not one man in ten who leaves them has ever been practically exercised in operations on the cadaver, and the proportion was still smaller before the war.  It is easy therefore to understand, while it would be painful to recall, the circumstances under which the great bulk of our army surgeons acquired the requisite proficiency.  The ultimate success of our medical service, like the final triumph of our armies, was preceded by many woeful blunders and mishaps, and, like that, was due in great measure to a lavish outlay which would scarcely have been possible in any European war, and to the general devotion and united efforts which drew out all the resources of the country, of whatever kind, and directed them to the furtherance of a single aim.