The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-01-12
TOO MANY DOCTORS.
Evils and Cause of the Overcro,yd-
ed Medical Profession.

Evils and Cause of the Overcrowd
ed Medical Profession.
From the Philadelphia Medical Journal.
In common with the other professions.
thsS of medicine is overcrowded This
condition is not new one, but it is worse
than it was and it is continually growing
worse. We doubt whether it is within the
province OF any man to point out sure
and certain remedy for bad sociologic con-
ditions, but it is within the province of
any of us to note a few of the factors
that contribute to existing laws and by
avoiding them in the future to lessen to
some extent the evils of which we COM
plain.
Medicine invites the allegiance of many
who imagine that they see in its prac-
tice an easy method of making a respec-
table living without going to much ex.
| pense in preparation. This class was es-
pecially appealed to by the formerly ex
| istlng short courses of study with the alb
| solute certainty of graduation at the end
| of two years. To-day, being shut out OF
| most reputable medical colleges, the same
| class is taking up the various branches
| of quackery, such as osteopathy, hypno-
| tsm, Christian Science and kindred short
| cuts to good incomes The institutes"
| struction in the various healing" fads
make a special point of dilating upon the
| certainty of making a good living by
| these means in a very short time. 1t is
| evident that a good living" for these
| frauds is smaller annual income than
| is requisite for the reputable physician,
with his necessarily large expenditures
| every year for books, instruments and
| remedies. The fact that these charlatans
to etc -an
| be recognized. We cannot lessen the evil,
| no matter how much we deplore it. Irreg-
ular practitioners of various sorts now
| monopolize more than half of the medical
| practice in regard to minor illnesses-the
| kind that would eventually get well with
| out treatment or in spite of it-end which
| formerly contributed a very respectable
| annual sum to the average doctors m
come. The genuine medical profession does
! as much work as ever in serious diseases
| but gets less pay for it.
1t may thus be seen that even without
| an annual influx of new men there IS
| less work to-day for the average doctor
| than there was twenty years ago. Pre-
| ventive medicine is still further lessen
ing the amount of routine work for the
| general practitioner. Typhoid fever was
| formerly the standby for steady income
| in many communities. Four or five cases
a very fair bulk of the general practi-
toner's outside work. The prevalence
of this Illness is constantly decreasing
some day it will be practically eradicated.
So it is with diphtheria; so it is in some
parts of the country with malarial dis
eases. Altruistic medicine is lessening its
own work and diminishing it's own in
come.
With these and kindred facts in mind
l. 70 IN Loo
sen the number of doctors who have TO
do the work? Should not every physician,
and especially every college professor,
do his best to keep the incompetent, the
ne er-lo- wells and certain failures from
entering our ranks? No young man
should be encouraged to take up the
study of medicine unless he possesses nat
ural qualifications of an exceptionally high
order. Good drug clerks, good BARRIERS,
good carpenters and good school teachers
should not be urged to abandon occupa-
lions for which they are suited, and in
which they make probably as fair an in
come as they will make in medicine for
at least ten years. Every professor IN
some college feels that it is his duty to
secure at least one student each year for
the class; sometimes he goes into the
highways and byways and compels them
to come in. Only too often the recruits
thus obtained are neither desirable from
the standpoint of intelligence nor pleas
ant associates from the standpoint of
personal character.
We plead for more care in the selection
of medical students; we plead for less
enthusiasm in urging young men to take
up the study of science for whose prac-
t!ce their personal qualifications do not
mt them we plead for a less crowded pro-
fession by raising the standard of admis-
sion into that profession.