Article May 25, 1907 Issue

"There are on an average four thousand doctors graduated...

Chicago Tribune

"There are on an average four thousand doctors graduated every year by the medical colleges of the country, and about three fourths of these are utterly incompetent and should never be permitted to practise medicine. Certain medical colleges are lacking in proper equipment, the instructors are wanting in the necessary ability for their task, and their examination methods are useless." These startling statements were made yesterday at a meeting of the council on medical education of the American Medical Association, a council composed of members of the various State boards of medical examiners and delegates from the State medical societies. "Some men qualified as medical practitioners," said Dr. Means, "are deficient in knowledge. I have written to twenty-five State boards, and I find that fifty-eight per cent of the men who fail at their final examination pass on a second examination a few weeks after In the few days intervening where did they get their knowledge? They did not get it. They were simply crammed with the answers to those questions which it was expected they would be asked, and they answered as parrots, not knowing what they were saying."

The project of State ownership of the colleges was broached by Dr. W. T. Gott, secretary of the State board of Indiana. Doctor Gott was emphatic in his denunciation of certain medical colleges, which he declared were unworthy of existence. A specific instance of the evil that is wrought by the admittance of unqualified person to the medical profession was given by Dr. R. H. Grube, delegate from the State Medical Society of Ohio. Doctor Grube was one of the few members who indorsed the suggestion of State ownership. He pointed to the so-called "museums of anatomy" which flourish along Clark Street, placarded with suggestive pictures, and which are run by men who style themselves "Dr." and who actually possess diplomas. Chancellor J. H. Kirkland of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn., stated that there were many so-called colleges in the South which conferred degrees upon men who were scarcely capable of spelling their own names correctly. "I have rejected students who applied for admission to the university, who were so ignorant that they could not have graduated from the high school. Yet these men have been admitted to a medical college not one hundred miles away from me."

In spite of the slashing attacks which were made upon certain classes of medical schools, there could not be found a single doctor present who would undertake their defense. The opinion seemed to be unanimous that there was something wrong, but no definite remedy was agreed upon.

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