New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-08-06
HERZOG FAILS TO PASS.
Professor of OphthaImy attacks
Civil SerCice Board.

DR.. Alfred w. Herzog, professor OF ophthalmy
in the Eclectic Medical College of the City %
New York. No. $50 East Fourteenth-st.. has is
sued statement in which he makes charges of
incompetency and injustice against the Munich
pal Civil Service Commission.
He begins his statement with the question,
What is rotten in the state of Denmark" He
then says that he competed in an examination
for oculist on June 10 and on July 8 received
a notice that he had failed to pass having
ceived 6S.2 per cent, instead Of the 20 necessary
He then says that, knowing his answers to the
questions entitle him to rating of 100 per cent.
and that his wide experience entities HIM 70 the
highest rating, he at once went to the commits
sion, where he found that he had received 10 on
his technical paper. and IS per cent on his
perience. He then sent an appeal to the COM
mission. in which he said
claim that every, one of my answers was cor
entitle me to the highest percentage possible for
technical knowledge, namely 100 per cent, and that
the full count of 100 per cent allowable. making
afc9 or to your method of counting an average
instead OF $50 per cent with which l have been
1 furthermore claim that the examiners have
stultihed themselves by not noticing that the paper
dehVered by me is one which proves that have
great deal of knowledge of the subject under ex-
animation, and that naturally 1 could not permit
them to give me less than the very highest per-
i, furthermore claim that the examiners were
gully Of great neggenGe in not reading hroggh
sionai aualidcati6ns as if they had done so thev
would have been forced to notice that I and
tic Medical College for the last eleven years. which
does; make bold TO state, prove that am to be
the subject under exa min ton ton.
me only 10 per cent on my technical knowledge,
when l ought to have been credited with 100 per
noe when ough tn have been credited y wP 100
per cent, have concluSively proven that they are
on he ride in vrrbiO
the candidates who have been examined at this
competitive examination are to be placed on the
Therefore, in appealing from the decision of the
certain candidates with the highest percentage pos
sble demand that my name shall not be placed
eligible list as it is more than probable that those
the head of the eligible list are as unfit to serve
as oculists as the examiners are unfit to fill the
sponslble position they at present occupy.
He received this reply:
At a meeting of the Municipal Civil Service Com
mission held July 80 1903 your appeal for rerating
was duly considered, and 1 regret to be obliged
TO inform you that the same was denied.
He now says that the commission has denied
his appeal without calling him before them. and
without giving him a chance to prove the cor
rectness of his answers. He declares that the
Board of Appeals is one different from most, in
that it does not hear both sides of a case. He
says that he has been unable to find either the
names Of the examiners of the successful
candidates, and intimates that those who passed
may have had previous knowledge of the ques-
tons.
Willis L. Ogden. a member of the commission.
when seen last night said that he could tell
nothing about the until he could get to
the office and examine the papers. In general.
he said that he supposed that the examiners
had been some experts chosen by the commits
sion. and that they were men of deep knoWl-
edge on the subject. The Board of Appeals is
made up of member of the commission,
elected for month, and of two members of the
board of examiners. The number of appeals
amounts 70 at least three hundred every month,
and it is impossible for the commission to take
care of them, but the board looks into each one,
am tries always to see that full justice is done.
AS to the insinuatiOn that the questions had
been known by the other candidates, Mr.. Ogden
explained the commission takes every precau-
ton to prevent that, and Mr.. Herzog could find
out the names of the successful applicants or OF
the examiners by applying at the offices of the
commission.