Docs Flock

Despite crowded trains, the doctor shortage and the scarcity of hotel rooms, doctors flocked last week to big meetings all over the U.S. Said the American Medical Association, which plans a Chicago meeting in June: "We just cannot postpone our scientific sessions any longer. . . . The ODT [told us] to go ahead if we felt it was necessary."

Most rambunctious meeting was that of the California Medical Association, which voted to try to oust Dr. Morris Fishbein as "spokesman for American medicine." Most gruesome meeting was that of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (external injury). Most exclusive meeting was that of the 225-man Association of American Physicians,* which met last week in Atlantic City (see below).

In spite of ODT's pleas to keep travel at a minimum, there were eleven other big meetings last week--a contrast with last year, when flocking doctors were almost as rare as passenger pigeons.

*When a doctor is proposed for A.A.P. member ship, the secretary sends cards with the candi date's name on them to all members for their comments. If there is no blackball, the doctor is unanimously elected. Between this elite corps and the American Medical Association (which will take almost any licensed physician not in trouble with the law) are about 165 national medical organizations, each with its own degree of exclusiveness and membership dues ranging from $5 (A.M.A.) to $40 (New York Academy of Medicine).

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