Show A PECULIAR all thai made by the doctors and the W U for the purpose of fighting patent 1 medicines the doctors as represent ed by the american medical assoria alon have made an alliance with the W U who have been deceived into believing that the alcohol in pat ent medicines is a menace in this alliance he good ladies of the W U are apparently put in the alon of dragging chestnuts out ot the fire fer their allies there is no class so firmly convinced of the necessity for alcohol in medication as the doc tors who with a few exceptions not only prescribe it freely but use it as indeed they must whether they would 1 to or not as a solvent and preservative serva tive on the other hand the W IT contends that the whole ic edical and pharmaceutical world Is in error that alcohol as not only use less but that it is dangerous and harmful in any quantity in any cinal preparation valle their pies are so wholly at variance the doctors and the W U ladles have cheerfully allied themselves in a war on patent medicines and the W U Is placed in an even more ridiculous position by reason of the tact that the doctors do not confine their fight to those medicines which contain alcohol but lump all patent medicines in one class and this too despite the fact that according to fig ures printed in the journal of the american medical association about 70 per cent 0 physicians prescript pre scrip alons are tor patent or proprietary medicines the inability of many physicians to prescribe any but ready to use rem edies is frequently commented upon by the medical pi ess and by phyll clans of the better class when assem bled in contentions that three fourths of the physicians graduated each year in the united states are in competent and a peril to the corn in which they practice was charged openly at the annual meeting of the committee on medical aduca tion of the american medical asso elation held in chicago in april of this year the total number of grad bates annually was placed at 4 which means that at least 3 in competente compe tents are turned loose annually it was stated at this meeting that an average of 58 per cent of the bradu ates from medical colleges tailed to pass state examinations these fail ures either go back to school or go to some state where the requirements are not so high that many doctors are so ignorant in matters pertaining to pharmacy that they know nothing about the properties of the drugs they prescribe was stated by dr M clayton thrush a professor in the medico college at philadelphia in an address before the annual convention of the american medical association at at alantic lantic city in june of this year dr henry beats jr president of the board of medical examination tor the state of pennsylvania in an interview in the daily papers said about one quarter of the papers show a degree 0 illiteracy that rend ers the candidates tor licensure ll censure in capable of understanding medicine he criticizes the colleges tor award ing degrees in these cases |