The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1907-10-31
STATES LICENSE TOsKILL:

STATES LICENSE TO XIII.
Here is an editorial from the col
umns of the Duluth News-T Tribune
which an overwhelming maj ority sof
the people of Minnesota. will unhesi-
tatingly endorse:
The gentlemen who officially repre-
sent the medical profession in the state
of Minnesota should ask the next leg
islature for one reform, which is be-
coming more and more urgent and in
which they will have the support of
the people.
| 1t is time a distinction was legally
drawn between a doctor of medicine
and a surgeon. It is time lot of am
bilious self-confdent and daring
young medical graduates we're forbid
den by law to practice surgery upon
an innocent public. ...t-r.
Surgery has made tremendous ad-
vances in the past twenty-five years.
There are probably fifty major oper-
ations now to one in 1880. Nearly
every small city in Minnesota of 2, 900
to 5000 population has at least one
private hospital, if it has not a public
hospital. -.- ..--.-
These with few if any exceptions, are
in charge of men capable of performing
with skill any operation they will un-
dertake. Their consciences have been
trained with their hands, they know
their limitations and appreciate the
value of human life and their respon-
sibility.
These small hospitals. are now so
numerous that they can be reached in
few hours by any patient and are all
within telephone call. There is no
necessity for any major operations
outside OF them, or by any but quail
fed surgeons.
But there are in this state and
throughout the west, small army of
young doctors wholly unframed in
surgery, with no experience, without
hospital course, who have learned
all their surgery from the benches and
yet are operating in major cases.:
They have an array of instruments, an
operating chair, boundless assurance.
an absence of conscience and a license
from the state to be butchers Of hn-
man beings.
| The physicians of this state owe it
to their profession that this be STOP
ped, at least in Minnesota. No man
is qualified to be a surgeon who has
not acted as an assistant in a reputa-
BILE public hospital for at least two
years.
No surgeon knows in an abdominal
case what he will find. It may be a
comparatively simple operation, it
may be a very difficult one, it may be
two where he expected but one, or it
may be wholly different organ which
is affected than he had prepared to
operate upon.
It is amazing that men can dare to
undertake such risks. But altogether
too many young doctors have their
first experience in surgery after begin
ming independent practice. The fees
are alluring and they know no other
way apparently to acquire skill than
upon those who are deceived by their
license given by the state.
They run but little risk, for if their
patient dies who can place the re-
sponsibility, and there is the license to
do just this thing. The practice of
medicine is wholly different than the
practice of surgery. It should be de-
clared SO by law.
Surgery requires wholly different
faculties, and their expression through
the hand. Many a man can prescribe
for a broken chair who cannot mend
it, and many a doctor can prescribe
for the stomach ache, who should not
be trusted to perform an operation for
appendicitis. -,