College of Physicians
It is difficult for a doctor
to get into the American College of Physicians or the American College
of Surgeons. Of 157.906 licensed doctors in the U. S., only 98,800
belong to the American Medical Association. Membership in the College
of Physicians is but 2,300. in the College of Surgeons only 9.858. Last
week 366 newcomers were accepted as Fellows of the College of
Physicians when it met in Baltimore.
They took a seemly oath:
“… I pledge myself . . . to consider ever primary to my own, the
welfare of patients dependent upon my professional knowledge and skill;
ever to respect the interests and reputations of my colleagues; as
occasion requires, to supplement my own judgment with the wisdom and
counsel of competent medical specialists; to render my assistance
willingly to my colleagues; to extend freely my professional aid to
the unfortunate, the poor and the needy; to advance steadily in
knowledge by the reading of authoritative medical literature, by
attendance at important gatherings of medical men, by postgraduate
instruction from men of eminence and position, and by the free
interchange of experience and opinion with my associates.
“Further, I promise, insofar as in me lies, to shun the public
press or public gatherings of laymen where my attitude might be
regarded as seeking self-advancement; to avoid selfishness and
commercialism in my professional practice; to influence patients to
appreciate their financial responsibilities to their medical advisers;
to adjust my compensation to the circumstances of my patients and to
make such charges commensurate with the services rendered and to avoid
discrediting my profession by seeking unwarranted compensation. . . .”
Specialists. Although new Fellows swore to consult specialists
and hoped that their fellowships suggested expertness in some medical
specialty, the outgoing president of the College, Dr. Sydney Robotham
Miller of Baltimore,* lammed the specialists: “We have
altogether too many specialists and the field is overcrowded by too
many incompetent specialists. I may add that no specialist is competent
unless he has had several years of general practice.”
Medical Missionaries. President Miller incidentally set up an idea of raising
funds to despatch medical school professors as medical missionaries
among small-town doctors.
Vitamins. Dr. Elmer Verner McColhtm, Johns
Hopkins chemical hygienist. observed that the nose of a person who
lacks sufficient Vitamin A runs just as it runs from common colds and
in sinus trouble. There may be a direct relationship between this
vitamin and such rhinitis.
Maternal Manganese. Dr. McCollum also
remarked that the lack of manganese in food “evidently destroys
the instinct of maternal affection” among rats.
Weak Hearts &
Oxygen. Several types of heart disease can be helped by keeping the
patient in atmosphere of 40% to 50% oxygen, reported Dr. Alvan Leroy
Barach of Manhattan.* The excess oxygen increases the amount of blood
the heart pumps each beat and thus aids the flow of blood through
hardened arteries, or it helps maintain circulation when the heart is
jolted by a blood clot plugging a blood vessel. The oxygen treatment
relieves shortness of breath, lowers pulse rate, improves appetite,
aids elimination of body poisons. It does not help tuberculosis of the
lungs.
Weight Reduction. Sarcastically Dr. Henry Asbury Christian,
onetime Harvard Medical School dean, assailed anti-fat nostrums:
“Many vagaries of diet are advised by food faddists which run from
nothing but grapes to almost nothing but oranges— through purely
vegetarian, largely meat, fat-poor, salt-poor, vitamin-rich, sugar-poor,
carbohydrate-rich, only milk and largely nut diets—with the
expectancy that soon someone will exploit a blubber diet. . . . All
these dietary regimens seem to succeed in ratio to the psychological
influence of the adviser and the psychopathic complex of the
advisee.” He advised merely eating less ordinary foods and being
satisfied with a pound a week loss of weight.
Stomach Cancer. Ammonia,
uric acid, urea and aminoacid have recently been discovered in
stomach juices. Certainly an increase of those substances is associated
with cancer, and perhaps with other diseases. Dr. Lay Martin of Johns
Hopkins is trying to find out, hoping that the proportions of those
substances in gastric juices may help early diagnosis of stomach
cancer. For some undetermined reasons cancer of the digestive tract has
become more frequent recently, observed Dr. Thomas Richardson Brown of
Baltimore.
Diabetes Criteria. Thousands of people who have not diabetes are being
treated for it and refused life insurance because of it, asserted Dr.
John Ralston Williams of Rochester, N. Y. Excess sugar in the blood is
no positive criterion of the disease, he said. He proposed a method
of exactly measuring the output of the pancreas whose imperfect function is an essential factor in the cause of
diabetes.
Migraine. The young electrician whom the University of Illinois College
of Medicine hired because he appeared to be a perfect victim of
migraine , was fired because rest and good food
unexpectedly cleared up his headache.
At Baltimore Dr. Ray Morton Balyeat of the University of Oklahoma
Medical School said he had examined 2,728 migraine victims and
figured that the U. S. had 4,000.000 of them. He believes that a
relationship exists between the headaches and asthma, hay fever, eczema
and other allergic disorders. At least he has prevented attacks of
migraine by easing attacks of the allergies.
Resolutions. Members of the College resolved to argue with Congressmen
and State legislators for the repeal of every law which restricts
medical treatment of disease by licensed physicians.
*President for the coming year is Solon Marx White of *Ordinary air contains 21% oxygen. At a
Minneapolis, who will preside over the College’s next annual meeting,
at San Francisco. Elected president for 1932-33 is Dr. Francis Marion
Pottcnger of Monrovia, Calif.
height of three miles oxygen is so scant that to live man needs
to breathe from tanks of the gas. At four miles oxygen is but 10% of
the atmosphere, and airplane motors need superchargers.
Next:Cancer Crusade (Cont’d.)
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