table. The professional class who are to uplift and direct the lowly must
not say, "So far shalt thou come, but not any farther," but rather, "Where
I am, there ye shall be also."

There is no more pathetic chapter in the history of human struggle than
the emergence of the smothered ambition of this race to meet the social
exigencies involved in the professional needs of the masses. In an
instant, in the twinkling of an eye, the plowhand was transformed into a
priest, the barber into a bishop, the housemaid into a schoolmistress, the
day-laborer into a lawyer, and the porter into a physician. These high
places of intellectual and professional authority, into which they found
themselves thrust by stress of social necessity, had to be operated with
at least some semblance of conformity to the standards which had been
established by the European through the traditions of the ages. The higher
place in society occupied by the choicest members of the white race, and
that too after long years of arduous preparation, had to be assumed by
black men without personal or formal fitness. The stronger and more
aggressive natures pushed themselves into these higher callings by sheer
force of untutored energy and uncontrolled ambition.

An accurate study of the healing art as practiced by Negroes in Africa as
well as its continuance after transplantation in America would form an
investigation of great historical interest. This, however, is not the
purpose of this paper. It is sufficient to note the fact that witchcraft
and the control of disease through roots, herbs, charms and conjuration are
universally practiced on the continent of Africa. Indeed, the medicine man
has a standing and influence that is sometimes superior to that of kings
and queens. The natives of Africa have discovered their own materia medica
by actual practice and experience with the medicinal value of minerals and
plants. It must be borne in mind that any pharmacopeia must rest upon the