REFRACTION IN SCHOOLS.

Abstract

This is an age of prevention rather than of cure. The greatest efforts are being made to cure disease before disease occurs. Can anything more distinctly exemplify the disinterestedness of the physician than his earnest and unremitting efforts towards prophylactic medicine? Reflect for a moment upon the discovery of vaccination for smallpox, and the villification endured by its progenitors and advocates. Note the active work accomplished by the medical profession in all questions involving sanitary reform and hygiene. Observe the earnestness of scientists as they endeavor to prevent the existence of diphtheria, tuberculosis, cholera, etc. by laboriously exhausting their very lives over the microscope and test tube. No one can affirm but that the existence of disease is more profitable to the physician than its dissipation; and yet the proudest member of our profession is he who discovers a prophylactic rather than a curative measure. Along this line of thought,