Boston University - HUB Yearbook (Boston, MA)

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SYMPTOMS' IN JWEDICAL EDUCATION. 23 By all accounts our :American corpus 'medicorum has long been ailing. As to the fact, the experts who have been consulted in the case have all agreed. The disorder being of a very complicated nature, however, it is not surprising, that, in the diagnosis and prognosis, there has been decid- edly less'of unanimity. As to the etiology of the trouble, some, with Dr. Pepper, have laid great stress upon an alleged excess of nutrition, others, with Dr. Davis, have directed attention to the obvious defects of the mas- ticatory, digestive, and a.ssimilative apparatus of the pa- tient, others still have thought that the noxious climatic and telluric influences of our new, undrained, and poorly- aerated American society, should bear the chief burden of blame. Accordingly, when it has come to the prescrip- tion of a rational and effective therapeutic treatment, the doctors have widely and hopelessly disagreed. This has left the case largely to laymeng and this, we are strangely told,1 is the first auspicious circumstance to be noted. At first blush such an assertion would seem to involve a grave reflection upon the profession at large, but it must be remembered that nothing is more unusual, or considered more unprofessional, than for the physician, when a patient, to treat himself. n How far a physician may build his hopes of medical reform upon the non-medical public in its civil capacity has recently found a remarkable illustration in a commu- nication addressed by a New-York physician to his High- ness, Prince Bismarck, and published in the Aerztliches Vereinsblatt of last June, under the superscription, Wtum of an American Physician on the Relation of the Physician to the State. In this elaborate and forcible communica- tion the author, Dr. B. Segnitz, demands, in the interest of science and in the interest of the public, the full assump- tion of the care of health by the State. He insists, that, 1 'The non-medical public is probably the only source from ivlilch efectual reform can be expected. - The American Journal of the Medical Sciences, July, 1878, p. 186.

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BOSTON UNIVERSITY YEAR BOOK. ihre Entstehung und ihre Wirkungen nach amt- lichen Quellen. Medicinal-Gesetzgebung. Berlin, 1879. ' Der neueste preussische Tazentwurf fur Aerzte und die bestehenden drztlichen Taxen in Thziringen. 0'or.-Blatt des allgem. drztliehen Vereins von' Thfii- ringen. Weimar, 1879. Zu dem neuen Entwurf betrefend die drztlichen Gelzilhren in Preussen. Deutsche med. Wochen- schrU't. Berlin, 1879. Ueber die Wrbildung zum medic-inisehen Studium. Von Dr. Neumaoin. Aerztliche Mttheilungen aus Baden. XXXIII 11, 12. Die Stellung des jcrahtischen Aerztes zur Realschul- frage. Wan Hedler. Hamburg, 1879. Uelver die Zulassung der Realschulabiturienten zum Studium der Medicin. Breslauer cirztliche Zeit- schrift lf 5, 6, 73 Berliner klinisehe Wochen- schrift X VI 1, 8, 9, 10, 14 3 .Deutsche medicinische Wochenschrift. T5 5, 14, 15. I Bericht uber die Wrhandlungen der Sachverstdndi- gen-Commission zur Revision der iirztlichen Pril- fungs-vorschriften fur das deutsche Reich. Wiir- tembergisches Correspondenz-Blatt, 1879. CXLIX. 3-9.j Ueber die Zulassung der gegenwlirtigen Real-Abi- turienten zum Studium der Medicin und Verbes- serungs-Wrselilbge betrejend die lczinftige Vbrbil- dung der Zlkdicin-Studirenden auf Gymnasien ,und Realschulen. Von Friedrich Ifuchcnmeister. Berlin, 1879. A Reform des medicinischen Unterrichts. Wiener medicinische Presse, 18791. CXX 11, 13.j Ueber die .Erziehung der Aerzte. Wn Rudobf Wrchow. Wener medicinische Presse. 1879. CXX 39.1

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24 Bosrozv UNIVERSITY YEAR Booze. until the physician is emancipated from his humiliating dependence on his patients for recognition and pecuniary support, there can never be an appropriate testing of can- didates, an unselfish professional body, nor a safe practice. The State should prescribe the most thorough education possible, and it should institute the most searching exami- nations as thc portal to practice g but, when the candidate has met all these preliminary demands of the State, it, in turn, should make him a member of the civil service, duly appoint him to a medical parish, and provide him an adequate salary. Thereafter his services, like those of a judge or general, should belong wholly to the community, and even the acceptance of the smallest present from a grateful patient should be strictly forbidden by law. All medical practice by persons other than the State-appointed physicians should also be made a punishable misdemeanor. That such a proposal should come from a country where the State has sought to give the maximum of free- dom to the citizen, both as physician and as patient, is, to say the least, significant. It is another utterance of that 'f despair of freedom which has lately led the advocates of medical reform in England to place their only hope in a prompt and thorough-going intervention of the civil power-.1 W Meanwhile, to the despondent American it should be instructive, that in France, where five years ago the State created and administered all appliances for medical educa- tion, and more entirely regulated medical practice than perhaps i11 any other country in the world, there has been complaint of sore evils in the profession, and an attempt to remedy them by authorizing the establishment of free 1 Boston University Year Book, Vol. IV. p. 20. - In what piquant contrast to this blind faith in an omnipotent State stands the delicious bitterness of this utterance of President Henri Roger at the opening of the last annual meeting of the Association Gcncrale de Prcvoyance et de Secours Mutuels des Mcdecins de France! - Aprcs lc vote de cette loi, une simple autori- sation d'un ministre incompetent et omnipotent ne suifra plus aux, xnedecins ctrangers pour exercer en France. '