The Illinois law pertaining to physicians is rather inadequate. However, the State Medical Board, a body created by law, has done its utmost to suppress quackery, and it is estimated that, through the enforcement of the statute, several hundred of the shady gentry have been driven out of the State. Of course, quite a few of the so-called "doctors" are still unapprehended.

The hatred of this horde is centered upon Dr. Rauch of Chicago, president of the State Medical Board. To remove him, his foes have stigmatized him as a whiskey addict, atheist, and associate of dissolute women. A committee of the State senate disproved the allegations, which are based almost entirely upon the statements of a Chicago drug store clerk, who asserted that Dr. Rauch drank twenty glasses of whiskey in one day at a local apothecary shop, that he cursed in a most abominable manner, and that he flirted with passing disreputable women under the door. This boob of a drug store clerk must know these women very well, 2to judge from his own evidence.

Dr. Rauch, aided by reputable witnesses of unimpeachable character, thoroughly refuted the accusations. It was proved that the physician's conduct was honorable at all times, although he is by no means a "water simpleton", and that, by virtue of his medical studies and experience, he is indeed qualified to serve as a member of the State Medical Board.

Only one "crime" was definitely attributed to the doctor; he tore off a sign at the Palmer House. Governor Cullom reappointed the physician to the State Medical administration, and the preponderant majority of the Investigating Committee--only two members dissenting--favored confirmation of the Governor's act.

Our anti-quack law, unfortunately, cannot serve in prosecuting all charlatans, because the statute grants immunity to all possessing a diploma issued by a medical faculty. In Illinois and other states one can find medical institutions where the student can really become proficient in his chosen profession; but no assurance is given that a person obtaining such credentials is actually capable.

Then, too, there are medical schools where it is impossible to acquire knowledge, even when matriculating with the best of intentions.

Our many medical faculties throughout the United States have unleashed thousands of "recently baked" doctors this Spring, all properly authorized to prey upon society. Quite a few of these medical aspirants will seek other vocations, because of the tremendous competition within the medical profession. But, even after such withdrawals occur, the number of men proclaiming themselves doctors is far too large.

Estimates show that, in Germany, one person out of three thousand is a "genuine" doctor; in France the ratio is one to four thousand; in England, one in twenty-two hundred. In the United States, the ratio is one doctor to every one thousand persons, on the average, and in several American cities we have one doctor (that is, a person professing to be a physician) for every one hundred to two hundred inhabitants.

Among these medical practitioners are many men, excellent and outstanding, hailing 4from Europe, as well as Americans. But in our crowded medical profession we have an astonishing number of misfits; this is true, first, because even in the best of American medical colleges the study period is far too short; second, because our country has a very large number of inferior institutions; and finally, because diplomas are too easily procurable. Such diplomas are a substitute for the serious, compulsory examinations required in Germany.