What has homoeopathy to offer the young man as a future ? This question comes to us repeatedly and in our changing economic conditions it is a pertinent question.
Perhaps we can get at the problem best by asking the young man the counter-question : "What do you want to get out of life ? " Only his honest reply to the question can throw any light upon his adaptability to homoeopathy and only upon an honest consideration of his adaptability can we prophesy what homoeopathy has to offer him. Why is he thinking of studying medicine ?
Is he lazy and does he consider a profession an easy way to earn a living ? Does he look upon medicine as a profession to be sought because of its honourable place in the community or as a position to be desired to secure a standing in society ? Has he an ambition to be hailed as a great surgeon or bacteriologist? Is he thinking first of the possible financial returns ?
If he would use his foothold as a physician for a life of ease, for a position in the community or in society, or for a means of obtaining fame and wealth, homoeopathy offers him little that he would care to accept.
How does he react to the fads of the day, the bulletins of the laboratories, the specious advertising of pharmaceutical houses, the glib talk of salesmen ? Does he believe that colloids are, after all homoeopathic potentiations ? Or is he convinced that colloidal preparations are but recent and crude imitations of homoeopathic potentiation which are inferior and far more uncertain in their effects than the proven homoeopathic remedy ?
If he replies to your question of his idea of the direction of his future so that it leads you to think that he looks upon sick humanity as suffering men and women, that he has a burning desire to serve them, to help them to better health and therefore greater usefulness and happiness, then you may be sure there is a sound foundation upon which he may build a plan of life in which homoeopathy will offer him great reward. We can proceed further with our probing of his character and abilities, and determine what homoeopathy has to offer him by finding out what he has to offer homoeopathy.
