Medical Missionary Department
By A. N. Allen
Conducted by the Medical Department of the General Conference GEORGE THOMASON, M. D. - - - - Secretary
L. A. HANSEN - - - - Assistant Secretary PROBABLY there are few fields where there is greater need of the true medical missionary, the one who walks in the steps of our Master, going about doing good, than in this South American republic of Peru. The laws would seem to be rather protective to the native physician, but the examination charge is perhaps worse than the examination. We now have strong friends among the Facultad de Medicina de la Universidad de Lima, men who appreciate and practise in their homes and profession many of our teachings on health and temperance. As inquiry has been made from time to time concerning examination requirements, I take pleasure in sending the following article to the REVIEW from the April Peru To-day:— "So many inquiries have been received by the editor, that instead of continuing to supply the information by letter, it has been thought best to publish the following concise statement of the regulations governing the practise of medicine and dentistry in Peru by foreigners, prepared by United States Consul-General Wm. Henry Robertson, of Callao:— "The Peruvian regulations require that physicians who are graduates of foreign universities and who desire to practise their profession in Peru, shall present themselves before the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lima, bringing with them the diploma of the university from which they have been graduated, with the signature properly legalized by the Peruvian ministry of foreign affairs, and a certificate of personal identity issued by the minister or consul of the nation of the applicant, resident in Lima. In the absence of these official signatures, there must be produced a legal identification by witnesses. "The fees, which are to be paid before taking the examination, amount to £100, which is the equivalent of the dues incurred by an alumnus receiving his medical instruction in the University of Lima. The examinations are five in number, and are taken in the following order:— "1. Theoretical-practical. The theoretical comprises descriptive, general, normal, and pathological anatomy, and general and human physiology. The practical consists in actual dissection of the cadaver, together with a proper description of such dissection. "2. Theoretical-practical. The theoretical comprises general pathology, and internal and external nosography; while the practical consists in the performance of one or two surgical operations upon the cadaver. "3. Theoretical, which comprises medical natural history, medical chemistry, and medical physics. "4. Theoretical, which embraces therapeutics and materia medica, medical jurisprudence and toxicology, and hygiene. "5. Practical, which comprises the clinical examination of a patient, another of surgery, and another of obstetrics; also, diagnosis, treatment, and clinical histories. "The requirements which graduate dentists of foreign universities have to meet in order to practise their profession in Peru are the following: They must pay the fees of matriculation, which amount to £50, and stand two examinations in this order:— "1. Theoretical, which comprises anatomy and physiology of the mouth. "2. Theoretical-practical, which comprises pathology of the mouth and the performance of one operation in dental surgery. "The requirements for surgeon-dentists who desire to take the examinations above referred to are the same as those exacted of physicians and surgeons." "Persons abroad who contemplate practising these professions in Peru and desiring more detailed information than is here presented, or printed copies of the exact laws, regulations, etc., governing such matters, should invariably address themselves to the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lima (El Decano de la Facultad de Medicina de la Universidad de Lima), Dr. Ernesto Odriozola, Lima, Peru." I should be glad to correspond with physicians, dentists, and nurses who may be looking for a field of usefulness.