Medical and Health Agency News Readers' Forum
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August, 1926 CALIFORNIA AND WESTERN MEDICINE 245 MEDICAL AND HEALTH READERS' FORUM AGENCY NEWS Dear Editor-Another kick-no, not at us, but at the The Health Officers' Section of the League of Cali- Government, or its administrators. fornia Municipalities will meet in annual conference in Why, in the name of all that is holy, should it be nec- the Yosemite Valley from August 16 to 20, 1926. essary for a reputable physician to send a "certified check" in payment of the measly $1 Narcotic Tax fee? Mortality statistics of the hospital patients was dis- In this day and generation, when a man's check is ordi- cussed by the Saint Francis Hospital Clinical Society at narily worth 100 cents on the dollar in any part of our the June meeting. country, it looks as if the Collector of Internal Revenue The obligation to explain the death of a patient to was putting something over on us. If it is not merely a one's colleagues is calculated to promote the careful study, local rule, the matter should be taken up with the De- diagnosis and treatment that all patients are entitled to. partment in Washington, D. C., and satisfactorily ad- justed. It is merely another instance of jamming us. The Medical Library Association held its twenty- Now everybody holler! ninth annual meeting at Ann Arbor recently. Sixty medi- Yours groaningly, cal libraries from all parts of the United States sent (Signed) WILLIAM A. ROWELL. delegates; Mary E. Irish, Barlow Medical Library, Los P. S.-What could they do if one enclosed a $1 bill- Angeles, represented' California at the meeting. legal tender all over these United States? Officers of the association for the ensuing year are: John H. Ruhrah, Baltimore, president; Harvey Cushing, Boston, vice-president; Miss Biethan, University of Michi- San Francisco, June 30, 1926. gan, Ann Arbor, secretary; and Miss Loomis, North- Dear Editor-writes a prominent non-medical man- western University, Chicago, treasurer. "Today I listened to a radio talk by Mrs. A. Yuille Mrs. Irish has supplied us with a report of the meet- (KFWM) on the responsibility of doctors for drug ad- ing, which should have a great interest for members of diction, and it should be called to your attention. the medical profession because the keynote was not what "She quoted from Doctor Blair in the 'Survey' and is of the greatest advantage to the librarian, but how charged the profession with 'majority of 75 per cent of can the librarian best serve the medical profession in the addiction which exists at present.' The whole talk obtaining and making available the greatest and best was a defamation of the honor and integrity of the pro- material for practical and scientific use or research? fession, and her statements were not in accordance with The American Hospital Association announces the the facts and absolutely untrue." removal of its offices from 22 East Ontario Street to This is a fair sample of many complaints about the 18-20 East Division Street, Chicago. misleading and even false propaganda that seems to The 1926 meeting will be held at Atlantic City, Sep- constitute an increasing amount of the stuff of which tember 27 to October 1. William H. Walsh is executive some radio programs are made. secretary. The Pacific Northwest Medical Association re- Los Angeles, California, July 14, 1926. cently held a most successful meeting at Spokane. These Dear Editor-The low esteem in which a noble and meetings are attracting much attention because of the honorable profession is held by certain classes in the com- splendid way they are organized down to the last detail munity is due to a variety of causes. In my humble opinl- and because prominent invited physicians, many of them ion, the most potent of these is the habit of uttering in experienced teachers of medicine, take leading places on semi-private or semi-public occasions derogatory remarks their programs. fellow Invited speakers at the recent meeting included Hans concerning our practitioners. Lisser, San Francisco, who spoke and gave a clinic on Another potent cause of this deplorable condition is Endocrine subjects; Howard Naffziger, San Francisco, the failure on the part of many doctors to uphold and addresses and clinics on Surgical Neurology subjects; defend the noble profession to which they have the high Karl F. Meyer, San Francisco, who discussed local im- honor of belonging, against insidious and dastardly munity and Tetanus; George Dock, Pasadena, who spoke attacks. on Neuropathies, Anemias, and conducted a medical To our shame, it is sad to relate, occasionally these clinic. Dock also spoke on "Modern Trends in Medicine" attacks emanate, not from our avowed enemies, but from at a banquet, of which it is said-well, it won't be thoughtless members of our own profession. forgotten. A glaring instance of this occurred recently under my own personal observation. The circumstances were as Exophthalmic Goiter in Childhood-Thirty cases of follows: A doctor standing ahead of me in the line of exophthalmic goiter occurring in children less than 15 applicants for renewal of the Harrison Narcotic License, years old are reviewed by Henry F. Helmholz, Roches- in the office of the Collector of Internal Revenue, after ter, Minn. (Journal A. M. A.). Compound solution of filling out the inventory said in a loud voice, "Why, I iodine, administered in doses of from 5 to 10 minims (0.3 use very few narcotics in my practice, but my competi- to 0.6 cc.) three times a day, reduced the basal metabolic tors buy them by the thousand." rates and toxic symptoms very markedly. It made pre- Can you imagine anything more disloyal and more liminary operations unnecessary in the last eleven cases. despicable ? Of twenty-four patients operated on, two died, one in Another instance occurred a few months ago, at a crisis twenty-four hours after operation and the other regular meeting of a County Medical Society assembled from bronchopneumonia one week after operation. The to hear talks from the prohibition director and his duration of the symptoms, which varied from six months associates. to eight years, indicates that frequently this disease is not In the course of the discussion which followed, in recognized early or its seriousness is not appreciated. answer to an adroit question propounded by the prohi- The patients came largely from Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois bition director, a doctor calmly confessed, to the utter and Wisconsin, in the order named. Tachycardia was astonishment of all present, that about 99 per cent of noted in 100 per cent of the cases. The thyroid gland was all his whisky prescriptions were fraudulent. Anyone definitely enlarged in all but two cases. All but two pa- familiar with the psychology of the average doctor knew tients complained of nervousness. Emotional instability that this answer was given in a jocular spirit of bravado. was perhaps the most marked feature. Exophthalmos was It was to be taken with several grains of salt. definite in twenty-five of the thirty cases, and in one of At a large meeting of a woman's club held a few the remaining five there was the characteristic stare. days later, the prohibition director cited this to show 246 CALIFORNIA AND WESTERN MEDICINE Vol. XXV, No.2 how little respect the average doctor has for the CALIFORNIA BOARD OF MEDICAL Eighteenth Amendment. EXAMINERS Despite the fact that for nobility of character and pure unselfishness the medical profession stands un- By CHARLES B. PINKHAM rivaled, we must remember that we are in the land of Another instance of fraud in the making of doctors the Philistines. was recently uncovered by the Board of Medical Exam- Yours truly, iners following a thorough investigation of the creden- JOHN C. COPELAND, M. D. tials of Ralph M. Putnam, who, according to his appli- cation to the California Board, pursued his freshman, sophomore, and junior years of medical study at the M. 0. R. C. University of Vermont, then going to the University of California still lacks about 42 per cent, or 519, of its Southern California. There, according to his statement, Medi1tal Reserve Officer quota. Utah, which has re- he presented a fraudulent transcript showing completion sponded 122 per cent, is now engaged in enrolling more of the first three years of medical study at the Univer- officers to help make up the deficiencies of some of its sity of Vermont. sister states. When called before Dr. Charles B. Pinkham, secre- During June the changes in our territory were as tary of the California Board, for an explanation of the follows: discrepancies in his professional record, Putnam con- New Medical New fessed that through a friend who had access to the office Offlcers Applications records of the University of Vermont, he obtained a Commissioned Received blank record transcript with the seal of the college California .. ...... 19 22 attached, and that Putnam thereon wrote in his own Utah ........ 2 1 statement of credits for three years' medical study. This Nevada .. ...... 0 0 statement, apparently bona fide, was accepted by the University of Southern California. After Putnam had The status of the entire Ninth Corps area is shown in completed his senior year in that institution he was this table: granted a diploma conferring upon him the degree of doctor of medicine, dated June 17, 1920. The records of the Board of Medical Examiners of -- (D 0 Massachusetts showed that Putnam failed in the written examination in that state in November, 1920, March, :GQO =O * i*:O May and July, 1921, and March and July, 1922. He is also reported as having failed the Connecticut examina- tion, July, 1923, neither of these states having discovered the irregularities in Doctor Putnam's credentials.