The Forrest City times., 1907-09-20
MEDICAL FAILURES.
An Authority Says Three-Fourths Of Graduates Are United to Practice.

practice medicine and are menaces to the communities in which they set tie was stated by Dr. Chester Mayer, of the State Board of Medical Exam iners of Kentucky at meeting of the American Medical Associations Com mittee on Medical Education, held in Chicago not long ago. pr. Mayer said that only 9 to 2s per cent Of the graduates are qualified. Fifty-eight per cent of the graduates examined in 2S states were refused licenses. With few exceptions these failures took second examination in a few weeks and only 50 per cent of them passed.
 This does not mean that deicien- cies in their training were corrected in those few weeks Dr. Mayer said. It 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 10 pass ex- aminations, not how 10 be good phy- sieians."
 At the session of the American Medical Association held in Atlantic City in June, Dr. N. Clayton Thrush, 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 serutiniz- ing the papers Of a class Of candi- dates for ieensure said: About one quarter Of the papers show a degree of ilIiteracy that renders the candi- dates fer Heensure incapable Of un- ierstanding medicine"
 A great many more physicians and chemists might be quoted in support of the astounding charge that 3. 00o in competenrs are being dumped onto an unsuspecing 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 8 dozen known cases where surgeons, after perform ing operations have sewed up the in cIsions without first removing the gauge sponges used 10 absorb the blood. and in some cases forceps and even surgeons scissors have been Jeff in the wound How many Of these cases there have been. where the patient died. there is no means or knowing and comparatively few of the cases where the discovery is made in time 10 save life become gen erally public. Reports from Santa riums for the treatment Of the Drug Habit show that members of the medi. cal profession are more often treated in these institutions than members of any other profession. and that 6 majority Of the patients. excluding the physicians themselves. can trace their downfall directly 10 a careless physician
 How many criminal operations are performed by physicians Is also matter Of conjecture Operations Of this class are. unfortunately. very frequent in large cities Some gradu. ated and licensed physicians. many or them of supposed responsibility make an exclusive practice of erim- inal medical and surgical treatment pr. Henry c. ". Rheinhart, Coroner's physician Of Chicago, estimates tha number Of criminal operations. annu. ally. in Chicago alone a. & .nG0. How many resulted fatally are unknown as when death results. the real canse Is disguised in the death certificate which the physician signs, and which no one but himself and Q clerk saes
 Probably not one case of uslarac. tiee in ! l.osa0 ever becomes tha Sphia,. of law suit but in ,he last year an pEoximately 150 eases wherein tha plaintiff has alleged malpractice have been reported il 1he ne~suaDers and owing 10 the social prominence and the favored positions ot many ubysj. clans not more than half the rev suiis stated. probably, result in any newspaper publicity. but f would probably not be an exaggeration n state that the total eases Of malp-ac. uee, nor iavo}vins criminal Operations or criminal uedieaI practice woali amount 10 l5o.00a or more than ona case 10 each physician ia the couutrv Ihts estimate Is. Of course. more or less conjecture. Cntilely deaths and permanent disabilities are f-e1uea- and occur within The knoxledre Of sI- most avery ere, when fife eould hs~a been saved n- ra.F--