The Yale expositor., 1907-09-20
MEDICAL FAILURES.
An Authority Says Three-Fourths of
Graduates Are Unified to Practice.


leges each year are wholly unified tc
practice medicine and are menaces 70
the communities In which they set
tie was stated by DR.. Chester Mayer
or 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 20 to % per cent OF the
graduates are qualified. Fifty-eight
per cent OF the graduates examined in
20 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" DIR. Mayer said
1T probably shows that experience
showed them what the test would
probably be and they 'crammed' for
the examination. DIR. w. r. 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.. NJ. 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!" DIR. 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"
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 d.
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 t''ried evidences Of the |
mistakes or criminal carelessness OF /
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
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
Oh 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
n these institutions than members
If any other profession, and that
majority of the patients, excluding the
physicians themselves, can trace
heir downfall directly to a careless
physician.
How many criminal operations are
performed by physicians is also a
natter of conjecture. Operations of
his class are, unfortunately, very
requent in large cities. Some gradu-
tied and licensed physicians, many
II them OF supposed responsibility,
make an exclusive practice of Grim
nal medical and surgical treatment.
Dr.. Henry G.. w. Rheinhart, Coroner's
physician Of Chicago, estimates the !
lumber of criminal operations, annu-
Illly, In Chicago alone at $4,000. How
many resulted fatally are unknown.
IS when death results, the real cause
disguised in the death certificate.
Which the physician signs, and which
10 one but himself and a clerk sees.
Probably not one case of malprac- |
Ice in 1000 ever becomes the subject :
I a law suit but in the last year ap-
$50 cases wherein the Z
laintiff has alleged malpractice have Q
cen reported in the newspapers, and
wing to the social prominence and
ne favored positions of many physi- 0
ians not more than half the new
uits stated, probably, result in any
ewspaper publicity, but IL would q
robably not be an exaggeration to
tate that the total cases of malprac-
ce, not involving criminal operations
criminal medical practice, would
mount to 10000 or more than one
ase to each physician in the country. /
his estimate is, of course, more or a
'ss conjecture. Untimely deaths and
disabilities are frequent I
nd occur within the knowledge of al
lost every one, when life could have v
eep saved, or health restored had II