South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1917-02-20
Improved Standards
Of Medical Schools
instructors to Be Selected on
Their Merits Instead of
Being Allowel to Play to
Teaching as Advertisement
fol- Private Practice.
By Woods Hutchinson. VI. ID.

The Worlds Foremost Writer on
Medical Subjects.
In the old style medical schools
much more attention was paid by
both professor and students to the
study OF medical diplomacy than 10
that Of practical science. This sim
pie principle was one Of the chief
secrets of the ease with which a
medical college could be launched
and fioated in almost any growing
city whose doctors were ambitious
70 have il become a consultation
center. and whose faculty could
manage 10 put up among them the
few thousand dollars required 10
rent the second story Of a business
block, which could be cut up into
lecture rooms and a few bare labor
atories. Then the fees Of the stu
dents, the consultation cases that
they sent back. and the hospital and
n-paying patients Of the members
of the faculty did the rest.
Was it any wonder that 80 years
ago we had nearly five times as
many medical colleges, so called, in
these United States alone as in the
whole OF western Europe, with near
| ly ten times our population; and
that the progress Of medical educa-
ton has been accompanied by
steady reduction in the number Of
medical colleges?
Strange as II may seem, not few
schools established on this frankly
II
rose rapidly in dignity and spirit,
profted by the mistakes Of their
earlier years, and became useful,
honorable schools, with high and de-
served regulations. For instance,
| one of the most famous and widely
known medical schools of the Allan
| tic seaboard, as recently as 90 years
ago. when it numbered its students
| by the hundreds, paid its faculty,
which included some of the most il
| lustrious names in American medi-
cine, no fixed salaries at all, but
| only a certain percent of the annual
net profits. and every newcomer
honOred by election to a chair had
| TO put up a goodly sum as his con-
tribution to the capital stock
But as the dividends were said to
| be half, and even two-thirds, the
amount in a good year. there was no
| trouble in getting hold OF the money
TO pay for the eat" Fortunately
| these matters belong now largely to
history, and the improved standards
of modern medical education i'm
| posed nearly 20 years ago by the
state boards Of health and commit
tees appointed by the better class
medical colleges themselves, have
I wiped out or compelled a reform in
these consultation mills.
J But the greatest obstacle to this
needed reform was this vicious prin-
ciple of appointing and expecting
men to play at teaching medicine in
the hope and for the sake Of reward
through incidental private practice
and practice profit later-in the Ian
| guage of the day, ION the side"
Selects Teachers on Merits.
| This the new national medical
| school proposes to abolish entirely,
| selecting its teachers solely for their
| qualifications TO teach or do pro-
ductive research work in their par
tcular subjects. and then paying
them all, including the hospital and
! clinical workers, a salary substantial
and adequate to enable them 10 de-
vote their entire time and energy
and interest 10 their chosen work,
! without being under any necessity TO
go and earn that damned guinea, -
as the great father of English sur
gerry. John Hunter, once furiously
exclaimed. when he was interrupted
in the middle Of an important dis
section experiment by the arrival of
a patient.
It also enables three different and
equally important types of doctors
each to be made happy and useful
i'm his own field The successful
general practitioner who can enjoy
his obvious reward undisturbed by
the spectre Of competition from his
more scientific brethren. who are
safely shut up in medical schools.
The born or natural medical teacher.
who is so full Of his subject. so car
ried away by its charms that he
can't be happy until he has a class
room full of promising youngsters,
| whose brains have not vet ossified,
10 whom he can unfold is delights
And he will make them believe in
il and love il and continue study
ing and advancing in il all their
lives long, too.
Finally. the born investigator the
discoverer, the man who can't help
asking why and will willingly give
his life 10 find out the answer. Some
times this man has the gift of ex-
preston as well. and then he be-
comes one of the greatest blessings
of his age often he is inarticulate
bashful. embarrassed as e. sch oOlboy
standing up 10 speak his first piece
but. even at that. he is a most in
spring and interesting sort Of ami
NAL for the embryo doctor TO rub
up against and be allowed 10 stand
and watch. even as il were only
through the bars Of his cage.
It is a great satisfaction and spur
20 active-minded and ambitious
Youngsters TO ne able 20 watch what
a discoverer looks like when ne is
discovering. or at least on the road
toward it, And the mere fact that