The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1907-09-19
MEDICAL FAILURES.
An Authority Says Three-Fourths or
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 Eenaces 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. DR.. Mayer said
that only 25 to % per cent OF the
graduates are qualified. Fifty-eight.
per cent of the graduates examined in
28 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 defcien-
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
professor in the Medico ChirurgicaE
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 hcensure said: about one
quarter Of the papers show a degree
of illiteracy that renders the candi-
dates for hcensure incapable of un-
derstanding medicine"
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 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
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
majority of the patients, excluding the
physicians themselves, can trace
their downfall directly to 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
of them Of supposed respectability
make an exclusive practice of Grim,
inal medical and surgical treatment.
DR.. Henry G. w. Rheinhart, Coroner's
physician of Chicago, estimates the
number of criminal operations, annu
ALLY, in Chicago alone at $4,000. How
many resulted fatally are unknown
as when death results, the real cause
Is disguised in the death certificate
which the physician signs, and which
no one but himself and clerk sees
Probably not one case of malprac:
tiee In 1000 ever becomes the subjec
Of a law suit but in the last year ap,
proximately $50 cases wherein the
plaintiff has alleged malpractice have
been reported in the newspapers, ant
owing to the social prominence anc
the favored positions Of many physt
clans not more than half the new
suits stated, probably, result in am
newspaper publicity, but it would
probably not be an exaggeration tc
state that the total cases of malprac
tice, not involving criminal operations
or criminal medical practice, woule
amount to 10000 or more than one
case to each physician in the country
This estimate is, Of course, more OF
less conjecture. Untimely deaths and
permanent disabilities are frequent
and occur within the knowledge of al
most every one, when life could have
been saved, or health restored had
the physician been skillful, careful
| and comDatent