hope. The rift is too wide and has been there for too long. Maybe, as in many places, physiotherapists trained in manipulation will prove to be the answer. Dr. Hoaken ends on a facetious note, suggesting CMAJ run educational articles on phrenology or teacup reading. May I draw to his attention a quotation from Oliver Wendell Holmes: medicine learned "from a Jesuit how to cure agues, from a friar how to cut for the stone, from a soldier how to treat gout, from a sailor how to keep off scurvy, from a postmaster how to sound the Eustachian tube, from a dairymaid how to prevent smallpox and from an old marketwoman how to catch the itchinsect." It is with such humility and openmindedness that we become worthy to serve the suffering. W.B. PARSONS, MD
4760 30 St. Red Deer, AB
To the editor: Dr. Paul Hoaken of the department of psychiatry, Queen's University, Kingston, summarizes my observations and feelings quite well. I wish to add one other point. In your article "Chiropractor in medical school sees value and interdependence" the person in question is quoted as undertaking research. I find this an unusual attitude towards research, to take a position and then do studies to prove it. One may put forth a hypothesis and then proceed to test it. It does not appear, on the basis of the article, that the gentleman in question was doing true scientific research. I would suggest that if CMAJ is so hard up as to need to publish such garbage, it go back to publishing once a month. I am astonished that a responsible journal would publish such an uncritical, unscientific, baseless article. It is surprising that a lay journal, Consumer Reports, would be forced to educate the public and obviously a large number of the medical profession, while a scientific journal proceeds to publish trash.
these qualifications has been determined, medical school admission committees can only experiment and do their best. I would have to agree with Dr. Biehn concerning the type of students that should go into primary care, having myself been in both primary care and specialty practice. It is my firm conviction that it is much harder to do good general practice than to do good specialty practice in any area. I believe it is to the benefit of the public if the best students are going into primary care. Having said that, a share of good students should also be going into the specialties, for it is from the specialties that advances in medical treatment will come. Dr. Clein speaks with considerable experience, as he was secretary of our admission committee for 4 or 5 years. He is well aware of the agonizing decisions that had to be made in this school as well as all others. I must, however, point out that it was with some reluctance that the members of the admission committee accepted lay persons on their committee and in their selection process. I would also like to point out that the Saskatchewan selection committee procedure is not considered to be working satisfactorily by
many within the faculty and the community; there has, in fact, been a great deal of criticism from both areas in this community towards our selection system. One would hardly expect the currently enrolled medical students to consider the selection system of any school to be wrong. Dr. Clein is well aware of the pressure that he was under, from both the community and some faculty members, concerning his selection committee. At present, admission committees have an almost impossible task of sorting out a very few appointees from a large selection of excellent candidates, and it is inevitable that, whatever method the selection committee uses, it is going to be criticized by some in the community and faculty. What disturbs me most, however, is the arrogance and self-righteousness among selection committee members in various medical schools that their system is absolutely correct and unassailable. I hope all faculties recognize that, whatever system they currently are using, it is indeed experimental and in fact they are creating many injustices when they make selections. T.B. MACLACHLAN, MD Professor and head Department of obstetrics and gynecology University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon, SK
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R.A. DURNIN, MD
St. Joseph's General Hospital, Peterborough, ON
Medical school admissions I have read with interest the article (Can Med Assoc J 113: 230, 1975) by Dr. J.D. Wallace on medical school admission systems and particularly that of McMaster, as well as the letters by Drs. J. Biehn and L.J. Clein that followed (ibid, p 716). While there is at present no ideal, correct and fair method of selecting students for medical school admission, one must accept that present systems are experimental. Until the qualities of a good physician are identified, and the method of selecting applicants with
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CMA JOURNAL/MARCH 20, 1976/VOL. 114 507
4760 30 St. Red Deer, AB
To the editor: Dr. Paul Hoaken of the department of psychiatry, Queen's University, Kingston, summarizes my observations and feelings quite well. I wish to add one other point. In your article "Chiropractor in medical school sees value and interdependence" the person in question is quoted as undertaking research. I find this an unusual attitude towards research, to take a position and then do studies to prove it. One may put forth a hypothesis and then proceed to test it. It does not appear, on the basis of the article, that the gentleman in question was doing true scientific research. I would suggest that if CMAJ is so hard up as to need to publish such garbage, it go back to publishing once a month. I am astonished that a responsible journal would publish such an uncritical, unscientific, baseless article. It is surprising that a lay journal, Consumer Reports, would be forced to educate the public and obviously a large number of the medical profession, while a scientific journal proceeds to publish trash.
these qualifications has been determined, medical school admission committees can only experiment and do their best. I would have to agree with Dr. Biehn concerning the type of students that should go into primary care, having myself been in both primary care and specialty practice. It is my firm conviction that it is much harder to do good general practice than to do good specialty practice in any area. I believe it is to the benefit of the public if the best students are going into primary care. Having said that, a share of good students should also be going into the specialties, for it is from the specialties that advances in medical treatment will come. Dr. Clein speaks with considerable experience, as he was secretary of our admission committee for 4 or 5 years. He is well aware of the agonizing decisions that had to be made in this school as well as all others. I must, however, point out that it was with some reluctance that the members of the admission committee accepted lay persons on their committee and in their selection process. I would also like to point out that the Saskatchewan selection committee procedure is not considered to be working satisfactorily by
many within the faculty and the community; there has, in fact, been a great deal of criticism from both areas in this community towards our selection system. One would hardly expect the currently enrolled medical students to consider the selection system of any school to be wrong. Dr. Clein is well aware of the pressure that he was under, from both the community and some faculty members, concerning his selection committee. At present, admission committees have an almost impossible task of sorting out a very few appointees from a large selection of excellent candidates, and it is inevitable that, whatever method the selection committee uses, it is going to be criticized by some in the community and faculty. What disturbs me most, however, is the arrogance and self-righteousness among selection committee members in various medical schools that their system is absolutely correct and unassailable. I hope all faculties recognize that, whatever system they currently are using, it is indeed experimental and in fact they are creating many injustices when they make selections. T.B. MACLACHLAN, MD Professor and head Department of obstetrics and gynecology University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon, SK
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R.A. DURNIN, MD
St. Joseph's General Hospital, Peterborough, ON
Medical school admissions I have read with interest the article (Can Med Assoc J 113: 230, 1975) by Dr. J.D. Wallace on medical school admission systems and particularly that of McMaster, as well as the letters by Drs. J. Biehn and L.J. Clein that followed (ibid, p 716). While there is at present no ideal, correct and fair method of selecting students for medical school admission, one must accept that present systems are experimental. Until the qualities of a good physician are identified, and the method of selecting applicants with
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CMA JOURNAL/MARCH 20, 1976/VOL. 114 507
