THE QUALIFICATIONS OF SURGEONS

Bruce Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 2485, 16 June 1893, Page 6

THE QUALIFICATIONS OF SURGEONS

Sir James Paget is reported to have said the other day thafc a surgeon on the day he receives his licence is declared fit to practise ; but that, so rapid is the growth of medical science, he may be quiet unfit ten years laber, unless in the meantime he has kept up the habib of study. In bwenby years he musb be hopelessly unfit unless he has been constantly a sfcudenb. This may be accepted as literally true without any rhetorical exaggeration. Ifc has great significance for doctors ; and, we venture to think, quite as much, or even more significance for the public. It is the almost universal custom for medical men to keep up their reading and study, at any

rate for some years after they have received their licenc >to practise. But aa middle life advance », unless they are fortunate enough to ba in some department; of special or consulting practice, the difficulties of preierving iv the habit of daily reading are almost insuperable. These difficulties ara not created by the doctors, bub by the public. A doctor, like another man, will marry ; and when he marries, and his four or five children running about, they must ba fed, clothed and educated. Iv order to feed, clothe, and educate them, fche doctor must have a considerable income ; and in many places the fees paid by fche public are so small thafc not one doctor in half-a-dozen can do any more than make the requisite number of visits fc* secure a moderate income. By the time he has done this he has exhausted his strengrh and vivacity, and he is compelled to rest. Rea ling and study under such circumstances are not ooly distasteful bufc impossible. The doctor becomesquite conscious that is behind fche times, and as a result he allows an unhappy timidity to take possession of him, a timidity which not only unfits him for practice, bufc renders his life dull and miserable fco the last degree. Bufc, whilst the doctor and his family suffer, the public, though they are not conscious of ifc, suffer a great deal more, and th-it is quite as it should be. Every family doctor has from two to five hundrel families under his care. The difference to these hundreds of people between beiug well doctored and ill doctored is immense. The health of many is permanently enfeebled, which need not be if their cases were understood, and many die who need not die. It is not the fault of the doctors ; they do what they can, and no man can do more. It is the fault of fche patients, who, because competition is keen among medical men, cut their doctor's fees down fco the last farthing. Our sympathies are with fche doctors, nob with the public. Can a starving horse draw a load ? Can a half-fed soldier fi^hfc victoriously through a long campiagn 1 Neither can a docaor who has to toil like a slave, and to be harrassed worse than a slave, keep up the habit of bright; and successful study. If the public desire the enormous advantage of the best science of the times in their own homes, they will do well to give a little more consideration to the question of the family doctor's fees. — The Hospital.