Juke 15, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



901 



American that, should he again be called 

 upon to serve his country, his enemies will 

 be in front and that he will not be de- 

 stroyed by his OAvn side through neglect of 

 sanitary laws. 



The public health and marine hospital 

 service has been and is doing splendid 

 work in sanitation. Its skilled investigators 

 have revolutionized quarantine measures 

 and have placed preventive medicine on a 

 solid basis. Their powers should be ex- 

 tended so that such unnecessary outbreaks 

 as occurred in New Orleans shall not be 

 repeated. They should be given control 

 of national quarantine in all its phases. 



MEDICAL EDUCATION, STATE LICENSURE AND 

 EECIPEOCITT. 



What is needed is a higher standard of 

 requirements and more and better super- 

 vision of professional schools. The council 

 on medical education is working hard and 

 is now in a position not only to show what 

 should be done but to initiate reforms. No 

 more important work has ever been taken 

 up by the profession. At the present time 

 medical education is uncontrolled and each 

 state has its own standard of requirements. 

 We can not rid ourselves of dogmas and 

 'pathys' until we can secure a universal 

 primary law as to the minimum amount 

 of knowledge on fundamental branches. 

 To accomplish this the American Medical 

 Association must cooperate with and en- 

 courage medical colleges to do better work. 

 The profession owes it to itself to investi- 

 gate in some manner what the schools are 

 actually doing and to make it known 

 whether or not they fulfill their obligations 

 to the student. No well conducted college 

 could object to such reasonable supervision. 



Another question of great importance is 

 that of reciprocity in medical license. The 

 conditions now are well-nigh intolerable 

 and restrain the individual freedom guar- 

 anteed by the constitution. The bound- 



aries between states are imaginary lines; 

 yet a physician on one side of a border can 

 not relieve human suffering on the opposite 

 side without becoming amenable to the law 

 or subjecting himself to vexatious exam- 

 inations which he has already successfully 

 passed in his own state. This must be met 

 and speedily by agreement between ex- 

 amining boards as to the minimum of re- 

 quirements. After all this is but a part 

 of the educational problem. If we could 

 solve this, all licensing boards could at once 

 adopt more uniform examinations and 

 reciprocity. 



EEIjATIONS to INSURANCE COMPANIES, 

 CORPORATIONS, ETC. 



We come now to consider some abuses 

 from which the physician suffers. It is a 

 matter of professional pride that, in the 

 general condemnation of the life insurance 

 companies, although every other part of 

 the control has been shown to be cor- 

 rupt, no breath of scandal has touched the 

 medical department. Yet the local ex- 

 aminer has the most cause of all to be dis- 

 satisfied. The New York Life, some years 

 ago, cut the fee for examination forty per 

 cent., apparently not as a matter of econ- 

 omy, for at that time the most corrupt 

 practises existed, but rather to enable the 

 agent more easily to pass 'new business' 

 at any cost. This action has lately been 

 imitated by the Equitable and some others 

 and has resulted in forcing the resignation 

 of many of th-eir best examiners. The gen- 

 eral officers have taken great credit upon 

 themselves for voluntarily reducing their 

 salaries twenty per cent. It is a rank in- 

 justice that the one body of men who have 

 emerged clean from the insurance scandals 

 should suffer the most for the crimes of 

 others. A thorough medical examination 

 to prevent fraud by the admission of un- 

 safe risks is essential. With few excep- 

 tions the line companies pay a fair fee and 



