The Spanish Fork press. [volume] (Spanish Fork, Utah) 1902-current, 1907-09-19
MEDICAL FAILURES.
An Authority Says Three-Fourths Of
Graduates Are Untitled 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 nenaces 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 20 to 2S 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
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.
1T 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.. NJ. Clayton Thrush,
a 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
ing the papers of 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"
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 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 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
gauze sponges used to absorb the
blood, and in some cases forceps and
even surgeons scissors have been
Vert In the wound. How manv 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
In these institutions than members
OF any other profession, and that a
majority Of the patients. excluding the
physicians themselves, can trace
tneir downfall directly to a 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.
aeed aud licensed physicians. many
Vi them of supposed respectabiIitv
make an exclusive practice of c,,,o
Ina' medical and surgical treatment
" Henry G. w. Rhelnhart. Coroner's
PH'S icIah OF Chicago, estimates tho
number OF criminal operations ANN
any III Chicago alone at $4,000 How
many resulted fatally are unknown
as when death results, the real camsn
- disguised in the death certjficate
~n'ch the physician signs, and which |
"V oHe out himself and a clerk seos
Frooably not one case of mo1nrao
uce IN 1000 ever becomes the snbioot
VI law suit but in the last veor on
p5oH'nately $50 cases wherein tb p
p t has alleged malpractice have
ogeh reported in The newspapers and
tb "'" 60, 10 the social prominence and |
uie favored positions of many nbrat
o,',.S not more than half the nav,
r na, stated probably, result in arv
"ewSpaper publicity, but il wouIS
p'ooabiy not be an exaggerot, oO'!u
S ,is lhat the total cases of malnro ~
Wv uee, not involving criminal operat Il, r
amo U'at'''haI medical practice, wonld