The surgeon was asked about the number of cases where lives had been lost through carelessness or stupidity on the part of surgeons.
“Caveat emptor!” was his reply. “You know the old gag? Let the purchaser beware. He doesn’t have to go to a poor doctor. Even some of the biggest grafters are eminent surgeons and at the top of their profession. I do not underestimate their ability. But heaven only knows there are ever so many cases of recklessness or carelessness or foolishness which have taken lives. Patients keep right on dying, you know, in spite of doctors or because of them.
“A good example of graft which came to my notice is this: A young Swedish farmer called in a doctor in a small town. He had pains and other things and looked generally shot to pieces. The young doctor speedily discovered that the real trouble was lack of air—unsanitary conditions in the home.
“‘You haven’t typhoid fever, you goat,’ he told the fellow. ‘I’ll fix you in a few days.’
“He opened the bedroom window first. Some one had told the farmer he ought not to raise his window nights, and there he was sleeping in that foul atmosphere. No wonder he felt badly. Well, anyway, in the course of a few days my friend had him feeling better. One day he called up and said he ‘wouldn’t be around that day. It wouldn’t be necessary—patient better,’ and so forth.
“Then the quack hove in sight. Some one had heard of him and he was sent for. He gave the convalescent Swede one look and said: ‘My God, man! You’ve got typhoid! Back into bed with you immediately or you’ll die.’ The terrified farmer crawled back into bed and began to feel worse immediately. Then the quack ‘doped’ him religiously for a few days and ‘completely cured him.’ My friend had been let go in the meantime.
“The idea of the younger generation of doctors, I find, is just opposed to the old ideal. The young man wants money and as a rule he isn’t particular how he gets it. He hustles through school, gorges his mind for the ‘quiz’—a ridiculous thing—and gets his diploma. No really good man could pass a ‘quiz.’
“Some schools, of course, are good, and I will say that the material we have in this country of which to make doctors cannot be improved on; but, on the other hand, some of the schools—many of them—are so bad that no school at all would be better.
“I must say that I do not entirely agree with everything you have said in your book, but I must confess there is much truth in your statements. As for Dr. Lord’s contentions—anent grafting, fee splitting and that sort of thing—well, almost everybody’s doing it. I know that. The number of physicians and surgeons in Chicago who would not do it is so small that it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack to find them.”