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JAMA. 2004;292:1115.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

More than a quarter of a century has elapsed since the enactment in Illinois of the first effective medical-practice act in the United States. The movement for the effective control of the admission to the practice of medicine, thus inaugurated, gaining momentum with the passing years, has advanced with especial rapidity in the last decade, until, at the present time, there are few states or territories in which the right to practice can be secured except the applicant submit himself to some sort of a test of his ability. The most significant feature of this recent progress is the requirement of an examination conducted by the licensing board, in addition to the presentation of a diploma from a recognized medical school. The licensing body is thus entirely divorced from the teaching body, and as these examinations are the sole avenue of entrance to medical practice, their character and conduct become . . . [Full Text of this Article]