Date of visit: January, 1910.
General Considerations
Of the medical schools in Washington, Howard University has a distinct mission—that of training the negro physician—and an assured future. The government has to some extent been the patron of the institution, and has done its medical department an incalculably great service by the erection of the Freedman's Hospital. Sound policy—educational as well as philanthropic—recommends that this hospital be made a more intimate part of Howard University, so that students may profit to the uttermost by its clinical opportunities. Its usefulness as a hospital in its immediate vicinity will be thereby increased; and its service to the colored race at large will be augmented to the extent to which it is used to educate their future physicians.
The other two schools lack adequate resources as well as assured prospects. They are surrounded by medical schools—those of Richmond, Baltimore, Philadelphia—whose competition they cannot meet. Finally, the District of Columbia has relatively more physicians than any other part of the country. Should the District require, as it ought, a higher basis, or even enforce an actual four-year high school standard, both would suffer seriously. Neither school is now equal to the task of training physicians of modern type.
Georgia
Population, 2,557,41. Number of physicians, 887. Ratio, 1:886.
Number of medical schools, 5.
ATLANTA: Population, 118,243.
