Did you know that Dr. Dewell Gann, Jr completed a week-long medical course in just two days?

In around 1924, when he was 34, he received a very high honor. He was awarded a fellowship at the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh, Scotland. But to be admitted, candidates had to endure ten written and oral exams over a week. After obtaining special permission from the college president, Dr. Gann Jr was allowed to do it all in just two days. According to the Arkansas Gazette, Dr. Gann Jr was one of “61 surgeons from all parts of the world,” who competed for the honor. He was “one of 21 candidates to pass the examinations” needed to get into the Royal College.

The Royal College of Surgeons was founded in 1505. Dr. Gann Jr was the fourth American to have completed the exams and the first to do so without taking the “prescribed preparatory course.” According to the article, when asked about the tests, Dr. Gann Jr said “Yes, it was a terrible ordeal… and I wouldn’t go through it again for $1,000. Those days were the most hectic.” He took the exams on July 6th and 7th in Edinburgh, Scotland after traveling by boat from Montreal, Canada on May 23rd aboard a ship called the Doric.

Dr. Gann Jr had left the country to represent Arkansas on the first Transcontinental Surgical Tour which included clinics in England, Scotland, and France. He was one of 25 spokesmen from the American College of Surgeons by the Interstate Post Graduate Assembly under the direction of Dr. Charles Mayo. It’s amazing that Dr. Gann was able to drop by the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh during his trip and pass all ten exams in two days. When the Arkansas Gazette covered Dr. Gann’s success in Scotland, there were allegations that the doctor himself may have written the article. A letter found near the article in Dr. Gann’s scrapbook from Gazette reporter M.C. Blackman revealed as much. 

Blackman said, “While no definite charges were made it was suggested that you were responsible for the writing of that story and for the prominent position it was given in the Gazette.” In this letter, the journalist denied any special treatment of Dr. Gann Jr’s story or placement on the front page, writing “…I, and no one else, was responsible for the publication of that story… I went to your office, on my own initiative, to interview you.”

Citations:

M.C. Blackman letter (editor at Arkansas Gazette) to Dr. Dewell Gann Jr, dated November 17th pages one and two

Little Rock Surgeon is Recipient of High Honor, Arkansas Gazette