The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-03-28
His Early Days In Alabama
 Village.
Famous New York Surgeon Tells of His Struggles to Get . Foot
 Hold fin The Profession
 Which he Adorned.

day. q had started out to practice In my native town in Northern Alabama. | As soon as I quit factoring l moved over to Arkansas and went into con tracing. had some good jobs. Con- struction of a jail for. Woojford County was one. I laid roads. put up buildings and was ready for any kind of contract that would pay. As soon as I got money enough I came to New York to learn my chosen business" Says The New York World.
 That accounts for the keen interest Dr. Wyeth and others at the head or the medical profession in this city. feel fin the Association of American Medical Colleges. In the student days of such men professional education was of ex- tremely uneven quality, crude even In its best development. Colleges in the largest cities had the advantages in superior instruction and in excellence of clinics. Naturally. they attracted all students who could afford to attend them. Tn the interior schools. from which were graduated the majority of those who took upon themselves the healing art, limitations extended to the students themselves. These schools but up no educational obstacles to ad- mission. They accepted without exam ination all applicants possessed of the school rudiments, and in two years
 
 Saw Need of True Study.
 That method of creating doctors im- posed upon graduates like pr. wyeth. who wished to follow the profession in conscience and who appreciated in practical fields their own imcompe- tence. the necessity of further instruc- tion before they dared take up the pro- fession seriously.
 The Association of Medical Colleges has as its purpose the correction of in- equalities, as far as practicable, by raising the requirements of admission to all colleges On the premise that the profession demands cultivated men and should leave no room for the ill., fitted. 1t is purposed to require en- trance examinations and to exact that Applicants be fully as well trained as are those who apply for admission to colleges of liberal' arts. It is purposed also to extend the professional course in all medical colleges from two years to four years, which should permit adequate instruction not only in text book subjects but also in clinical and Laboratory work.
 Dr. sWyeth read a paper recently be- fore the association on "The Medical Student of 1867," which related his own Experiences and showed how i'll prepared he felt himself for practice when he got his diploma. He had at- gtended college of excellent repute.f sNe paper described what that college gave to him and how insufficient he felt it to be for the conscientious prac- tice of his profession.
 "The Medical Department of the Uni- versity of Louisville" Dr. Wyeth said twas in 1867 one of the oldest and de- servedly best known of the medical colleges in the United States. Of those south of Mason and Dixon's line 1t |xuas . a riI Ia ri nf tad and the standard of requirements then prevailing at this school may be taken |as typical of the medical education in the United States at that period. There was no preliminary or entrance exam kpation. Any white male who could lead and write and who had gone Through the rudiments of English was eligible. I emphasize the white male. as the white female had not then en- tered the field of medicine. As white Is defned as the absence of color our medical class was essentially white. The Constitution of the United States had not as yet established its color pine. Neither Latin nor Greek was es- sential.
 Study Period Not Long.
 The requirements for graduation were satisfactory examination at the end of two college terms of seven months each. The division of subjects was that then prevailing in practically all the medical colleges-anatomy, physiology. surgery. medicine. obstet- fics. chemistry and materia medica
 Anatomy was thoroughly taught by the best teacher in this branch I have ever known. Our textbook was Gray and the lectures upon this usually dry topic were made so attractive that no Ftudent ever cared to cut one of Prof. Bodine's hours. The didactic course was supplemented by disescting room work of a high class.
 While material was not over-abun- liant. there not then being the same iberal construction of the law relating 10 the disposition of the unclaimed lead which now prevails, the activity pf our dissecting room Janftor kent ns in sufficient quantity of cadayers How he got them we did not know ana | probably was just as well that no vas Peter.
 "Tn surgery our text book was 1richsen and the teaching was both iidactic and clinical Tn the City Hos oftal and the college we saw surgical operations and received lessons in wound dressing and minor surgery in
 dlspensary connected with the IIni- Fersity. The surgery of the brilliant, 4ccentric and lovable Prof David w fandell and of Prof. Baylies was the pest of that period. but as look back lpon 1t in the light of the great ad- yencement in this department of Pcience, the work seems exceedingly rude and primitive.
 Tn medicine our teacher was the fchoiarly Professor Bell. His favorite heme was malaria, which he pro- pounced Malaria so often and in- istently that he was known to the Plass by the endearing title of old hAL-aria.' He impressed upon our minds the fact that Malaria was A niasm emanating from decaying vege- able matter at temperature of from to 9O degrees Farenheit for about fhirty days, and that those who slept ipon the ground floors of buildings in nalarfal countries suffered most. while hose who occupied the second third md higher floors escaped the baneful efects In the direct ratio of their ele- ration.
 He used the same comparison also In his lecture upon yellow fever. cit Ing the fact that in the Louisville eni- emic and others to which he had been jailed as an expert few, if any. per |ons sleeping upon the upper floors of
 ouses were affected. Knowing, as we To now, that the mosquito Is not prone To fly high, that he infests the lower loors of houses, seldom reaching the hird or fourth floors, we can under tand readily the error in etiology on he part of our beloved professor of medicine, one of the most earnest of aen.