The Idaho recorder. [volume] (Salmon City, Idaho) 1886-1927, 1907-09-26
MEDICAL FAILURES.
An Authority Says Three-Fourths OF
Graduates Are United to Practice.

That 3 600 out Of the 4,oUO grauu-
ates turned out by the Medical COZ
leges each year are wholly united 10
nractice medicine and are nenaces to
the communities in which they SET
tie was stated by DR.. Chester Mayer
of the State Board of Medical Exam
liners of Kentucky at a meeting OF the
American Medical Association Com
mittee on Medical Education, held III
Chicago not long ago. DR.. Mayer said
that only % to % per cent OF the
graduates are qualified. Fifty-eight
per cent of the graduates examined in
% states were refused licenses. with
few exceptions these failures took
second examination in a few weeks
and only so per cent of them passed
This does not mean that deficlen-
cies in their training were corrected
in those few weeks" DR.. Mayer said.
1T probably shows that experience
showed them what the test would
probably be and they 'crammed' for
the examination. DR.. w. T. Gott,
Secretary of the Indiana Board said;
THE majority of our schools now
teach their students how to pass eX-
aminations, not how to be good ply
| sicians."
At the session of the American
Medical Association held in Atlantic
! City in June, DR.. M. Clayton Thrush,
a professor in the Medico Chirurgical
College in Philadelphia said: MANY
doctors turned out of the Medical
| Schools are so ignorant in matters
pertaining to pharmacy that they
know nothing about the properties
of the drugs they prescribe for their
patients." DR.. Henry Beats, Jr., Pres
ident of the Pennsylvania State Board
of Medical Examiners, after scrutiniz-
ing the papers of a class of candi-
dates for licensure said: About one
quarter of the papers show a degree
of illiteracy that renders the candi-
dates for licensure incapable of I'M
derstanding medicine"
A great many more physicians and
|
of the astounding charge that 5000 in
competents are being dumped onto
an unsuspecting public each year.
What the damage done amounts to
can never be estimated for these in
competents enjoy the privilege of di-
agnosing, prescribing or dispensing
drugs regarding the properties of
which they know nothing and then
of signing death certificates that are
not passed upon by anyone unless the
coroner is called in. Probably there
is not grave yard from one end of
the country to the other that does not
contain the buried evidences of the
mistakes or criminal carelessness of
incompetent physicians.
During the last year there have
been perhaps, half dozen known
cases where surgeons, after perform
Ing operations have sewed up the in
cisions without first removing the
gauze sponges used to absorb the
blood, and in some cases forceps and
even surgeons scissors have been
left in the wound. How MANY of
these cases there have been, where
the patient died, there is no means
d knowing and comparatively few
d the cases where the discovery is
made IN time to save life become gen
orally public. Reports from Santa
riums for the treatment of the Drug
Habit show that members of the medi-
al profession are more often treated
IN these institutions than members
't any other profession, and that a
majority of the patients, excluding the
physicians themselves, can trace
Nheir downfall directly to a careless
physician.
how many criminal operations are
performed by physicians Is also a
matter of conjecture. Operations of
TINS class are, unfortunately. very
frequent in large cities. Some gradu.
ated and licensed physicians, many
oi them of supposed Responsibility.
make an exclusive practice of Grim.
MAJ medical and surgical treatment
{ n l..
Dr. Henry G. w. Rheinhart. Coroner,s
physician OF Chicago, estimates the
NUMBER OF criminal operations, annu.
amy III Chlcago alone at $4,000. How
many resulted fatally are unknown
as When death results. the real eause
- uiSsuised In the death certificate,
"hleh the physician signs, and which
no one but himself and a clerk seas
| ffonaoly not one case of malnrac.
! uce IN 1000 ever becomes the suhiao,
OF law suit but in the last VOC, -,
f.oAima'ely 100 cases wherein the
plSihun has alleged malpractice have
oeeh reported in the newspapers ana
wing TO the social prominence and
oie favored positions of many phvsi.
V'HuS not more than half the new
SUITS stated, probably. result in any
new SNAPPER publicity, but il would
( pioo@oly not be an exaggeratior -
state that the total cases of r,.1,,.S
'lee' no' involving criminal operations
N'in'ihal medical practice. won,d
"ulouht to 100000 or more than ono
1 ms. 10 each physician in the country
IN. n.S estimate is, of course. more or
- Conjecture. Uutimely deaths and
- 'A'''Lleht disabilities are freouent
anu occur within the KNOWLEDGE of al
n ,-.os' every one, when life could have
~ ~" saved or health restored had
.~ physician been skillful, carefnl
and competent e' -