The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1907-09-19
ny D. +. KEAfr.

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
Committee on Medical Education,
held in Chicago, not long ago. DR..
Mayer said that only twenty-five to
twenty-eight per cent. 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 second examination in a few
weeks and only fifty per cent. of then
passed.
This does not mean that deficien.
cies in their training were corrected
in those few weeks" DR.. Mayer said
ut shows that experience showed
them what the test would probably b.
and they 'crammed for the examin-
alton. DR.. w. 7. Gott, secretary OF
tAe 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.. M. Clayton Thrush,
a professor in the Medico-Chirurgi
cal College in Philadelphia, said
Many doctors turned out of the med.
ical schools are so ignorant in mat.
ters pertaining to pharmacy that they
know nothing about the properties OF
the drugs they prescribe for their pa.
TENTS" DR.. Henry Beats. Jr, presi.
dent of the Pennsylvania State Board
of Medical Examiners, after scruti.
nizing 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 un.
derstanding medicine"
great many more physicians and
chemists might be quoted in support
of the astounding charge that 1000
tncompetents 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.
nf fnNnDnnafnnt nh nj
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 know.
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 profes-
sion are more often treated in these
institutions than members of any
other profession, and that a majority
or the patients, excluding the phys
icians themselves, can trace their
downfall directly to a careless phys.
ician.
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 3S,-
600. How many resulted fatally nre
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 a
clerk sees.
Probably not one case of malprac-
tice in 1000 ever becomes the subject
OF law suit. but in the last year ap.
roiimately $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 ii would
probably not be an exaggeration to
state that the total cases of NAL
practice, not involving criminal op-
erations or criminal medical prac-
tice, would amount to 10000, or
more than one case to each physician
In the country This estimate is. OF
course, more or less conjecture. I'm
timely deaths and permanent disa-
bilities are frequent, and occur within
the knowledge of almost every one,
when life could have been saved, or
health restored had the physician
been skillful. careful and competent.
---------' 80 -