The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-02-12
WANT MEDICAL
 COLLEGE HERE Why Birmingham Is the
 Logical Point THE CARNEGIE FUND Removal of Mobile College to This City Is in Line With Efforts to Limit Number of Medi-
 cal Schools
BY CLYDE W. ENNIS

q great medical school in Birmingham ana to eventually secure for that institution an endowment of $1,000000 from the An drew Carnegie educational fund has ere ated in Birmingham the most intense in terest The proposition is to remove the medical department of the University of
 Alabama from Mobile. some POO miles south of Tuscaloosa, to this city, combine
 IL with the local college and designate the institution as the medical department of the university, is briefly the purpose of those starting the movement
 The agitation started when 1t was noted
 that the authorities of the Mobile schoo
 had requested additional money for that
 place, which is being and will be resisted
 by the medical fraternity in Birmingham
 The argument is advanced by the Jeffer-
 son County Medical society and the Bir.
 mingham Medical college that it is moi
 at all settled that the school at Mobile is tc be the final seat of medical learning 1T il is state as part of the university, ano that no further appropriations should be made by the state until 1t Is decided once aud for all time that the school at Mo
 bile is to be permanent.
 The pamphlet of the Mobile school called for more library equipment, more clini- cal equipment and improvements of other
 kinds.
 As explained in Birmingham yesterday it is not the desire of the local medica school authorities to precipitate a con troversy for the removal of the Mobile ccbooI to p;rp,;nobap, If is known here that the school there is rather dear to the people, and that it has done and is doing great work. But 1t is pointed out that tho Birmingham school is superior. admit tedly, in many ways to the Mobile school
 and that the question of the medical de
 partment and its location should be set tied now and for all time.
 It is stated that if the state continues to put money into the Mobile school from year to year, and does not settle the question of permanent location, tha'
 finally the state would have so mucf
 money invested as to preclude the possi
 bility of the removal, even should the en
 tire commonwealth agree as to the logit
 of the movement
 The local physicians have no desire tt
 hc placed in the attitude of trying to de stroy the Mobile school or to bring tn, | local viewpoint to bear upon the legisla | ture. They simply wish to point out thu | fallacy of keeping the appropriations go | ing toward M@bile bay and permitting l the most timely medical question to go oi
 and on without any solution.
 | As to their attitude on this matter, tn 1 following letter has been issued by tn | u,i- erl,o
 In view of the publicity which ha been given to the proposition to establish l a great medical school in Birmingham
 and to make 1t the medical departmen | of the State university, the undersigned | officers of the Birmingham Medical col lege desire to make this statement. s' | that the attitude of this institution WILT | reference to the proposed change may
 not be misunderstood.
 In the first place we have not author ized any of the statements which have
 been made with reference to this matter l The present discussion of medical educa. ton in Alabama Is simply one incident | in the widespread efforts to improve med ical teaching and to limit the number oi medical schools in the United States. | During the past few years the suDJec | of medical education in the United Statei | and Canada has been studied very ex | nduStlVelY Dy the COuflCll On iHCuiSdi Cd ucation of the American Medical associa-
 tion, and the Carnegie foundation for ths advancement of teaching The Carnegie
 bulletin No. 4, published in 1910, reviews the whole subject very carefully and i'm. partially, criticiZing severely the majority of existing medical schools, in which neither of the medical schools of Alabama
 are spared.
 We respectfully refer the press and pub lie to this report. On pages 1855 to 1S7
 inclusive, and also pages 152 and 15S, the author shows conclusively after a mos
 thorough investigation that Birmingham
 is from every standpoint the logical point
 for the location of the medical depart
 ment of the State university.
 B. l.. VIVIAN, M. D., Dean. E. P. HOGAN, M. D., Sec. The investigation of Abraham Flexner representative of the Carnegie founda
 ton, was not confined to any locality
 which is referred to in the foregoing let
 ter on the local physicians. In his in, vestigations of the two medical colleges
 in Alabama, MT. Flexner sums up tho faults and good qualities of the two
 schools and points out that the logica place for one, in connection with the State
 university, Is Birmingham. In comment. ing upon that matter the report says: "It is difficult to see how the influence or control of university can in any event be made effective at Mobile, 232 miles
 distant, at the opposite end of the state
 and in a hospital in whose clinical man. agement there is no continuity. Birning ham is much closer (to Tuscaloosa), being
 only 56 miles distant, and promises a
 larger supply of clinical material. If therefore, the state is able to look at the question on its merits, without regard to the rival claims of competing towns, fl should establish practice requirement
 that would automatically suppress pro- prietary instruction. For the present
 the university might offer the two years
 work at Tuscaloosa. reserving to a more propitious time the entire question ol organizing under effective university con. trol. a complete medical school at Bir mngham, which is the nearest feasible location. As the state now contains phy- sicians for every 924 inhabitants. the re-
 strictions or suspension of clinical teach. ing some years to come involves no dan
 ger to the community
 The local medical college simply desires that this report to the Carnegie educa.
 tional fund be made known as one pre-
 pared after the most careful and pains taking Investigation.
 It Is stated here that as to the lack oi
 clinical continuity at Mobile, spoken ol