Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1907-09-19
MEDICAL FAILURES.
An Authority Says Three-Fourths OF
Graduates Are United to Practice.

Graduates Are United TO Practice.
That 5000 out of the 1000 gradu-
ates turned out by the Medical Col
leges each year are wholly untitled to
practice medicine and are menace 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 Associations Com
mittee on Medical Education, held In
Chicago not long ago. DR.. Mayer said
that only rs to 20 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 a
second examination in a few weeks
and only so per cent of them passed.
This does not mean that deficien-
cies in their training were corrected
In those few weeks" DR.. Mayer said.
ut probably shows that experience
showed them what the test would
probably be and they 'crammed' for
the examination. DR.. w. T. Colt,
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,
q 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 candt-
dates for licensure incapable OF un-
uSTSlduutHS uCulSlAC.
A great many more physicians and
chemists might be quoted in support
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 a grave yard from n 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 a dozen known
cases where surgeons, after perform
ing operations have sewed up the in
cisions without first removing the
u 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
OF knowing and comparatively few
Of the cases where the discovery is
made in time to save life become gen
orally public. Reports from Santa
RUINS 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, a trace
l their downfall directly to a careles!
? physician.
How many criminal operations err
. performed by physicians is also
9 matter of conjecture. Operations o
this class are, unfortunately, yer!
! frequent in large cities. Some gradl
7 ated and licensed physicians, man
, of them of supposed responsibility
: make an exclusive practice of GRIN
: inal medical and surgical treatmen
y DR.. Henry G. w. Rheinhart, Coroner
. physician of Chicago, estimates tt
. number of criminal operations, ann
ALLY, in Chicago alone at $4,000. Ho
many resulted fatally are unknow
as when death results, the real caus
Is disguised in the death certifcat
: which the physician signs, and whit
no one but himself and a clerk see
J, Probably not one case Of malpra
tice In 1000 ever becomes the subje
OF a law suit but in the last year a
:, proximately $50 cases wherein Il
n plaintiff has alleged malpractice ha'
been reported in the newspapers, al
!, owing to the social prominence a
-. the favored positions of many ply
ii clans not more than half the ne
suits stated, probably, result In a.
newspaper publicity, but II wou
probably not be an exaggeration
state that the total cases of malpr;
he tice, not involving criminal operatio
w. or criminal medical practice, wo,
"a amount to 10000 or more than Q
In. case to each physician in the count
rn- This estimate Is, Of course. more
less conjecture. Untimely deaths a
he permanent disabilities are freque
To and occur within the knowledge Of
nv. most every one, when life could hs
wi been saved, or health restored
he the physician been skillful. care
rec and competent.
,od