The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-12-22
Obstacles I'm Medical Education.

ODSNHehGN jul NhUuhC1A ENuuDhNHVus
Is il growing too hard to become a
doctor? Are the recent attempts to
elevate the standard OF medical educa-
ton in the State OF New York as success
full az wa anticipated? Has it been the
effect Of State supervision to give us more
highly qualified practitioners Of medicine
and surgery and those allied specialties
which constitute branches Of the medi-
cal art?
These and similar questions of much
Importance to suffering humanity, as
we'll az to doctors themselves, naturally
occur to the mind at a season when stu
dents Of medicine are beginning or resum-
ing their work at 50 many institutions
Of learning in this State and in the
try at large. The particular inquiries
which we have placed at the commence
ment OF this article have been suggested
by a very able address recently delivered
by DIR. WILLIS J. TUCKER. professor Of
chemistry and ~tOxicology in the Albany
Medical College. at the opening Of the
seventy-seventh session Of lectures and
other instruction in that school.
Ia it growing too hard TO become a
doctor? Professor TUCKER evidently
thinks II is. The time spent in prepara-
tory work ia too long:
The favored pupil who leaves the high school or
academy at eighteen. college st twenty two and She
| medical school az twenty SIX. II he takes q year or
two Of hospital or Other post graduate work. or
! studies abroad. will hardly be able TO begin his
practice until he Ia approaching thirty"
DR.. TUCKER asserts that the average
would-be doctor cannot afford this Ok
penditure Of time: that few men need IL,
and that many men are actually injured
by it. We may add that the work pre-
paratory to entrance into tho profess
sional school ia often wretchedly made
duate in its results. In this State a
student desiring to be a doctor must
have the sufficienCy OF his preparation
to begin the study Of medicine tested BY
examinations prescribed by the Board
Of Regents OF the University, unless he
happens to be a college graduate. These
examinations must be poorly fOrmu-
lated or carelessly conducted il we are
TO Judge from the literary and mathe-
NAUTICAL attainments displayed by medi-
cal students who gain their admission
to the professional schools by means OF
the certificates issued under the all.
thority Of tho Regents. We have before
us a list OF errors in spelling made by
such men in a single class in a medical
school in this city which il simply dis
graceful. The mistakes disclosed in
this list relate largely 10 words In daily
use In the literature Of medicine.
That a similar condition o. things exists
in the Albany Medical College Is appar-
ent from this statement in DIR. TUCKER's
address:
Men who spell wretchedly and make bad worl
With simple arithmetleAl calculations still enter
armed with state credentials. and last year In thl
school more nrst year men we're conditioned thai
In any previous year within my recollection"
There can be no doubt that this &C.
cOmplished and experienced instructor
in medicine would respond in the mega.
tive to our question whether State super
vision has resulted in giving us NOR,
highly qualified practitioners within thu
territorial boundaries OF New York
Indeed, he expressly avows his disbelie
In the idea that the average reputabl,
American physician to-day is In AM
recognizable degree superior to hi
predecessor Of a quarter Of a century
ago as a result Of State supervision.
The tendency OF a system OF Stat
supervision over medical education
anch ma now exists in New York. in I,
place the medical schools more and NOR
under the absolute authority and con
troll OF bureaucrats. who seek TO interior
with the most minute details OF admins
t~ratiOn; who measure results by tn
quantity OF time devoted to study, a
evidenced in minute statistical reports
rather than by the quality Of the stu
dents attainments a. as~certained by hi