fessorial dignity impresses the crude boys who will be likely to require with their first cases the aid of a "consultant." The "dean" of one such institution was frankly explaining his methods. "What do you give your teachers?" he was asked. "Titles," he replied.
The less obviously commercial schools allege not infrequently that medical education no longer pays, that it is kept up for the sake of the "back districts." We have already shown that the back districts deserve and can get something better. Meanwhile the statement does not persuade. Hundreds of thousands of dollars annually pour into these institutions; in many cases, this has been going on for years. What becomes of the money? There is in general nothing to show for it; a few hundred dollars would replace the fixtures and equipment of most of them.[1]
The discreditable showing made by our commercial medical schools must not, however, be permitted to obscure the fact that we have at this date perhaps thirty institutions well equipped to teach the medical sciences in laboratories usually of modern construction, invariably of modern equipment. Twenty years ago we had not one. Our immediate problem has therefore two aspects: on the one hand, to strengthen these institutions, increasing their number only as actual need requires; on the other, with all the force that law and public opinion can wield to crush out the mercenary concerns that trade on ignorance and disease.
- ↑ In a few places there is a considerable investment: Atlanta College of Physicians and Surgeons, Atlanta School of Medicine, the two Richmond schools, for example. See for detailed discussion, chapter viii.
