Morning journal and courier., 1884-07-04
A New York Doctors GrOSvl.

People are not generally aware of the fact" said 8 distinguished physician in this city, whose name is familiar on both conti- nents, and who is popularly supposed to hair an income of at least $22, ,OO0 8 year, ''but the real truth is that the medical profession is poor. Not only poor, con sidered as body, but men whose name is on everybody's tongue as able and successful are often without dollar in their pockets It was not always so. Time was when fair completeness, if not collossal fortunes could be amassed by able and industrious members of the profession, and wh, doctors of smi hence died worth from $1OO, ,OOO to $500, 900. But that halcyon ii me for the doctors has gone by, and nowadays if a man manages to come out even with the baker and grocer at the end of the year he is doing very well for a doctor, and may thank Providence that the balance Is not against him.
 ''The causes that have been silently at work during the last quarter of century, to re- duce the medical profession to poverty, and bring doctors to grief in many ways, are not generally understood, of course but they are very simple and intelligible, when once you have heard it stated. Tempora mutan- tur the rest follows without saying" quoth
 
 long ago, either, when the ratio of doctors to general population in this city was only one to l, ,5O0. Now, 50 expeditiously are physicians ground out in the half a hundred mills could name, styled medical colleges, that the ratio in this State is one doctor to every GOO inhab- itants, and in this city one to every $50. It is this little trife of statistics-a mere differ ence in ratio-that makes all the difference between opulence and starvation. In reality, to-day, young man without money or in- fuence, however his talents, address or at tainments, and however exc eptionally equipped for his work, has less prospect of success, starting in the world as physician, than in any other department of intellectual activity.
 'I pity strong, active, energetic young fellow, with brains and culture, when I see him step up to the presidents desk with such an air of Pm made man now,' to receive his diploma. Energy might avail him in busi- ness, but not In medicine; and the more energetic he is, the mora it will gall him to wait for patients that never come, and starve while they are coming l tell you the truth for it ought to be told, as a warming to am- bilious young men that the ranks of medi- cine are overcrowded, and the probabilities in it scarcely one in 1000. Accident may give 8 clever youngster an opportunity to treat au extraordinary case and make his rep utation at a stroke. But, as rule, ability is of no avail-for, as a rule the accident never happens, and the golden opportunity never turns up.
 q have been a professor in a college for the last 10 years, and could tell you the his tory of many a promising graduate, such tales of broken hearts, blighted ambition, dis appointed hopes, and wrecked hves ending sometimes in suicide, from no fault of the poor fellows own; only because there are three doctors where one is needed.
 ''Yes, it is tine-high time unused the old man letting his head drop, pensively. High time the facts were spoken out, printe d, and young men from spending their best years studying for profession that has nothing to offer but fsilure."
 Warming with his subject, the old man began to marshall facts and figures. "One doctor to every $50 persons in the United States; one to every 600 in the State of New York; one to every $50 in the city. The sta tistics by bureaus of vital statistics, mainly in large cities, show that, ca the average, year in and year out, the ratio of sick persons to general population runs about 20 per 1000. In times of epidemic, 8 little higher in ex- ceptionally healthy times, or sslubrious eli mates, a little less; seldom sinking below IT or Is per 1000. Out of these 20 you may count as cases of cid age or incur able diseases, and two or three more as non-pay- inR-pauper, or equivalent to that 50 far as the maintenance of doctors is concerned. Now, on the average m tnls c1tyB every 1,OOO persons must furnish incomes for two doctors. That is, if the sick people (20 per 1,OO0) were divided equally among the physi- clans, the number assigned to each would be a fraction less than 10, of whom six or seven would be pay patients. Of course. som have scores of patents; some have none; but the average is thereby not affected
 'tBut what is moro discoursging still is the fact, statIstically ascertained also, that on the average; the services of physician are dispensed with in 24 cases in every 100 on the sick list The figures now stand as fol- lows: Constantly sick, 20 per l, ,Ooo-of whom eight belong to the senile, incurable and pau per classes, and three or four more get on with quack medicines or home remedies leav- ing not more than 10 per 1000 to support the two doctors. As fees are now regulated, no losses being incurred, if all the pay pa tients were divided pro rata among the doc tors, their income would not average $1O a week.
 "And this, cried the old greybeard, say. agely, ''is the pass to which our present sys- fem of medical education has brought a once noble profession. A young fellow in the who has gone to school of winters till he is 21, and can read. write, cipher as far as compound division, and parse Mil. toms Paradise LOst,' drops the plow-handle,