The Medical Profession in the US, France, Germany, Austria, etc.
(Original title: The Medical Profession in Other Countries)

In the United States there are usually no restrictions upon the practice of medicine, and in only a few of the States has the medical profession any legal standing. The ordinary medical title is that of doctor of medicine, and that degree is conferred by a large number of institutions after a curriculum of study that varies much in length, and after examinations that are equally various as tests of proficiency.

In France the medical profession is divided into two grades; those in the higher grade are all doctors of medicine of the faculties of Paris, Lille, Nancy, Bordeaux, Lyons, or Montepellier; those in the lower grade are officiers de santé.

In Germany the right to practice is conferred by a state licence granted on passing the staats-examen; the examination, which is almost entirely oral and practical, may be passed in stages at any one of the universities in the empire, the professors of anatomy, physiology, and pathological anatomy being practically ex officio examiners, while the other examiners are very frequently ex officio examiners, while the other examiners are very frequently also professors in the medical faculty. The staats-examen is usually passed before the candidate seeks the degree of doctor of medicine; that degree is almost always taken by those who pass the examination for the state licence, and it is usually conferred after a more or less formal examination of the candidate before the medical faculty, and on the approval of his thesis.





In Austria, the right to practice is carried by the degree of doctor of medicine, there is no separate licence, and no examination except that of the medical faculty of the universities (see Billroth’s Lehren and Lehren der medicinischen Wissenschaften, Berlin, 1876).

In most Continental countries there are penalties directed in effect against practicing medicine without the state licence, or the university degree equivalent thereto, and in France the law now extends to resident foreign practitioners who have qualified only in their own country. The regulations for the practice of pharmacy in Germany and other Continental countries have long been of a very stringent kind. The training and licensing of midwives is also under state control.





Read the rest of this article:
Medicine - Table of Contents