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Problem of Indian Administration

of family and individual medical record deemed advisable and reasonable of compilation, he replied that if that was what the Indian Office wanted, he would do it. If he were alert and thoroughly interested in his profession, however, it would seem that he would want to keep such records for his own use, regardless of the desires of the Office. The progressive practitioner of today keeps accurate records of his cases.

The character of the medical service that has been available is doubtless in part responsible for the limited use of available hospital beds. It is frequently said that the hospital personnel is too limited to care for more cases. The lack of personnel is admitted, but a question may be raised as to what would have been the result if the hospitals had been filled to capacity, thereby creating a more serious demand for additional help.

In the past the physicians have been required to render surgical as well as medical service. Most of these physicians are not surgeons, and although they admit it to a colleague, they are slow to admit it to the agency personnel, because they fear being unfairly judged. A doctor not trained and experienced as a surgeon must take risks and may render inferior service to patients.

At one large boarding school a full-time physician was employed. His duties were confined entirely to the school which offered him an opportunity to do a constructive piece of work. The service rendered at this school is so typical of others that portions of it will be discussed. The physical director, a young ambitious man, spent a few weeks one summer at one of the state universities studying physical education. He returned and started to carry out some anthropometric studies. During the course of this work he observed that a limited chest expansion, a rapid pulse, and underweight frequently connoted tuberculosis, as was evidenced when some of the pupils thus indicated broke down later in the school year. The physician might easily have utilized this man’s work as a basis for rendering a service to the pupils, thus encouraging the physical director along the right lines and making a worth while contribution to the knowledge of Indian anthropology. Instead, he resented the fact that a layman was counting a pulse and suggesting the possibility of the presence of tuberculosis.