Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1950-01-27
Some Thoughts on Doctors
And Patching Blue Jeans

AS there are no doctors in my family,
the ak grind is not personal in that sense.
Nor did ever believe the American Medical
Association was Allah with DR.. Fishbein as
chief prophet. am simply housewife
with five children, and since I have been
dealing with doctors all of my life and know
that my children will deal with them dur
ing theirs, I am interested in medical edu-
cation.
The statements of Eugene Kelly, in his
letter to The Star, make my blood boil. He
would truly reduce doctors to robots with
his suggestions. He refers to the profess
sion as if all of it's members were engaged
in exactly the same type of routine as, for
example, file clerks. The field is somewhat
more varied; some students will eventually
enter private practice; some will enter
clinics; some will go into the untouched
areas Of our own and foreign countries;
some will be research men; some, as in the
hospitals OF the armed services, will be
administrators.
To cut out liberal arts background or
substitute two years of physiology, chem
istry and biology" is absurd Medicine is.
not pure science. It is also one of the
major arts, and the measure of the kind
OF doctor to whom Mr.. Kelly refers is his
skill in blending his two equally important
knowledges.
discipline to which DR.. Bloedorn referred
by pointing out that the major subjects of
first year medicine are anatomy, biology
and biochemistry? The memory course" in
anatomy is discipline of high order It is
not just the rote of memorizing names of
parts: it is knowing precisely where they are
and their relation to each other. The mental
gymnastics of pulling these facts out of
memory at the right time and place. with
out running to reference book every time,
is never going to cease. Or maybe L have
Just happened to run into the only doctors
extant who are not simply transmission
belts to the specialist" If those are the
only ones Mr.. Kelly knows, at least they
have the wisdom to determine what man
ner OF specialist is needed.
Number of Specialists Limited.
But specialists are normally available only
IN metropolitan areas to somewhat limited
few. What OF men and women working in
areas too remote. too poor, to afford access
to specialist? They work and serve and
save. and that fact is recorded from personal
observation not from reading Cronin novels
and listening to the radio
DR.. Bloedorn's lack of logic distressed Mr..
Kelly. MIR. Kelly's distresses me. He decries
the learning OF anatomy as dull brick-laying
routine. half-baked French as an idiosyn-
cracy OF liberal arts, and then proceeds to
say that the French does not guarantee
dexterity with the forceps Does he mean
Tor US to infer that his suggested substitu-
ton, two years of physiology, chemistry and
biology. will guarantee the dexterity? That
final skill with the forceps is the product
OF co-ordinated manual and mental GYM
nastics, acquired much later when the going
gets tougher but is still possible because of
foundation of discipline
No medical school ever eypactad ono+or,x,
to produce independent judgment and
ratlocination." The background for that
comes earlier. 1t belongs to such channels
as the clear expression of ones observations.
agreements and criticisms in ones own
language. as in English composition. for
instance; to longer view of history and the
deductions and speculations which come
from it; to the experience and hopes. the
growthS and retrogressions of man as re-
vealed in his literature (even DR.. Freud
found q knowledge of this quite useful to
ms own, new science). basic knowledge
OF economics would scarcely be time wasted.
And since the laudable trend is now toward
pSychoSomatic medicine, doctor needs to
know not only psycho-genic but also socio-
cultural origins. Sociology and psychology
and philosophy should not be foreign Ian
guages. Then of course those liberal arts
backgrounds are also known to contain such
In fact they are weighted with them.
There are possibilities in the purer arts,
too, and some pre-med students have been
known to make the most of them: Music,
sculpture, painting, writing. It is the robot
indeed who has only pure science at his
command. Countless men of science have
utilized those relieving but allied arts to
afford badly-needed respite and balance.
Courses Need Adjustment.
1t is true that the curious and many times
arbitrary requirements of our liberal arts
colleges frequently fail to prepare not only
our doctors but also our lawyers ministers,
engineers and business administrators. It
Is quite possible for students to learn more
in-less time and have freedom and stimu-
lation for independence of action and
thought. The adjustment Of curriculum
needs to be done, but the answer for medical
students is not to cut it out
!. We have gone long way with our purely
scientific knowledges. Recently an atom
split asunder and the logistics of troop
movement and supply got the job done"
Or did it? Now we explore the possibilities
OF hydrogen, We have to learn yet to con-
troll our robots. Man is going to have to
study Man--not Just his biology, his chem
istry, or the anatomical structure of his
brain. Man has revealed himself, and con-
clinical 1t would be nice if the rank and
file of the medical profession were permitted
to know more and not less about what they
are.
Our economy is going to have to provide
for something besides better mousetraps
than our neighbors. do not entertain the
idea of state medicine as socialistic gov
ernments know it. But we should make it
financially possible, through Federal scholar
IDoY, aIan1o ILL.
gent and gifted young men to make the long
climb. Reducing the length of the climb
will not raise the. caliber of the profession
Elements of the profession have 'magni-
fled themselves beyond all proportion. They
are not as sacred as some of them assume
They should be subject to our scrutiny and
criticism, but they should still have place
set apart in our respect. They alone stand
sometimes between US and the physical and