The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1907-10-03
Some Disquietin8 Facts
About Incompetent Doctors
By z. P. KEMP.

That 1000 out of the 1909 gradu-
ates turned oft b. the medical col
leges each year are wholly united
TO practice medicine and are Eaenaees
10 the communities In which they set
tle was stated By DR.. Chester Mayer,
OF tie State Beard Of Medical Exam
iners OF Kentucky, at meeting OF
the American Medical Associations
Committee On Medical Education,
held in Chicago. not long ago. DR..
Aayer said that only twenty-five to
twenty-eight parent. of the graduates
are qualified. Fifty-eight per cent.
of the graduates examined in twenty
FIVE States were refused licenses.
With few exceptions these failures
took a second examination in a few
weeks and only fifty 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 shows that experience showed
them what the test would probably be
and they 'crammed' for the examia-
alton. DR.. ". T. Gott, secretary OF
the Indian Board said; The majority
of our schools now teach their STU
dents how to pass examinations, not
how to be good physicians"
At the session of the American
Medical Association held in Atlantic
City in June, DR.. N. Clayton Thrush,
a professor in the Medico-C -Chirurg.-
cal College in Philadelphia, said:
MANY doctors turned out Of the med
ical schools are so ignorant IA mat
ters pertaining to pharmacy that they
know nothing about the properties OF
the drugs they prescribe for thefr pa
tients." DR.. Henry Beats, Jr., presi-
dent OF the Pennsylvania State Board
of Medical Examiners, after seruti-
nizing the papers of class OF candi-
dates for Hcensure, said: About one
quarter Of the papers show degree
Of illiteracy that renders the candi-
dates for 1icensure Incapable OF un-
derstanding medicine"
A great many more physicians and
chemists might be quoted in support
of the astounding charge that 5000
incompetents 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
diagnosing, prescribing or dispensing
drugs regarding the properties OF
which they know nothing, and then
of signing death certificates that are
not passed upon by any one 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 careless
ness 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
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 pa
tient dies, there is no means Of knoX-
ing, and comparatively few OF the
cases where the discovery is made in
time to save life, become generally
public. Reports from sanitariums for
the treatment OF the drug. habit show
that members of the medical profess
sion are more often treated In these
institutions than: members of any
/ other profession, and that majority
of the patients. excluding the phys
icians themselves, can trace their
downfall directly to careless phys
tcian.
How many criminal operations are
performed by physicians is also a mat
ter of conjecture. Operations Of this
class are, unfortunately, very fire.
quent in large cities. Some gradu"
ated and licensed physicians, many
Of them Of supposed respectability,
make an exclusive practice of. Grimm
al medical and surgical treatment.
DR.. Henry G. w. Rheinhart, Coron-
er's physician of Chicago, estimates
the number Of criminal operations,
annually. in Chicago alone, at 49,
900. 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-
tice in 1000 ever becomes the subject
OF law suit, but in the last year ap-
pro1imately $50 cases wherein the
plaintiff has alleged malpractice have
been reported In the newspapers, and
owing to the social prominence and
the favored positions Of many phys
icians not more than half the new
suits stated, probably, result in any
newspaper publicity, but 1t would
| probably not be an exaggeration to
$L,k >$o1 ~ J..