372 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII. No. 1107 



Thus the total resident hospital service 

 spent by the 22 general surgeons who re- 

 ceived one or more years of their hospital 

 training at the Johns Hopkins was 98 

 years, an average of 4^ years. That of 8 

 gynecologists with similar training was 37 

 years, likewise an average of about 4^ 

 years, while that of 11 obstetricians was 39 

 years, an average of about 3-^ years. The 

 length of service of different individuals 

 varied in surgery from 2 to 8 years, in 

 gynecology from 3 to 7 years and in obstet- 

 rics from 2 to 5 years. 



With this long hospital service of gradu- 

 ates preparing for surgery may be com- 

 pared the services of a similar group of 13 

 men preparing for internal medicine. 

 These men served a total of 50 years, an 

 average of nearly four years, with varia- 

 tions in length of service from 2 to 10 

 years. 



Of the graduates in the surgical group 

 those whose records show the smallest per- 

 centage of specialized graduate training 

 belong to the genito-urinary surgeons and 

 the eye, ear, nose and throat specialists. 

 These men undoubtedly have for the most 

 part had a large amount of dispensary 

 training not indicated in the records. 



The 40 graduates included in the science 

 group all had, as assistants and young in- 

 structors, a large amount of special labora- 

 tory training subsequent to graduation. 

 Yet 50 per cent, of them first spent a year 

 or more as clinical internes. 



The 10 men now engaged in administra- 

 tive work all had some special postgradu- 

 ate training, in most cases including a hos- 

 pital interneship. 



The long course of preparation, four 

 years in college, four years in the medical 

 school and several years of subsequent 

 training for a specialty which marks the 

 career of so large a percentage of those 



under consideration would lead us to ex- 

 pect to find most of them settled in large 

 centers of population where specialists have 

 the best opportunity to exercise their call- 

 ing and get return from the heavy invest- 

 ment in time and money. This is the case. 

 The graduates of the first ten classes are 

 widely scattered over the country from 

 Maine to California and from Minnesota to 

 Louisiana but for the most part they are 

 settled in large cities, Baltimore naturally 

 claiming the lion's share, but with a rela- 

 tively large number in New York, Boston, 

 St. Louis and San Francisco. 



TABLE V 



Location According to Size of Towns 



J. H. U. Graduates, 1897-1906, Practitioners Only 



Table "V. shows the distribution of the 

 graduates engaged in private practise in 

 this country and its dependencies, marked 

 "foreign" in the table, according to the 

 size of the communities in which they are 

 located. Prom this it may be seen that 

 over two thirds are located in cities of 

 100,000 inhabitants or over, and relatively 

 few are located in towns of 10,000 inhabi- 

 tants or less. 



The great majority, therefore, are in 

 active competition with first-class men in 

 large centers. How many have made a 

 striking success? This is a difficult matter 

 about which to form a fair judgment. Ex- 

 cellent service may lead to a merely local 



