The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1852-05-05
THE MEDICAL SOCIETY AND QUACK-
cry,

Our friend. the Lord Mayor ofFreder'cksourg
10 cer,ainly very candid man. He boldly
ayows, ia the middle of this nineteenth centu-
~, las the demagogues say,) standing, not IN
the South porch of the capitol" bat in the
shade of his own sancsum, not under = an DC
tober sum-" but in the cool breeze of an UNI
commonly cool May-day, that SO far as he is
concerned, he is " a believer in quackery," and
never "uses any other but Quack medicines"
Oh! Dir. Semple, MIR. Semple! You know not
what you are saying. If you should chance
to be taken sick, how do you know that the
doctors may notbleed and blister you to death2
To be serious; we think the object aimed at
by the Medical Society an excellent one, and
we believe that so far from ipjuring any Of our
medical institutions, it will, in the end. be be-
nefcialto them all. Yet there is enc impor-
tant consideration connected with the matter,
and thatis the extreme difficulty of carrying the
law which is before the Legislature into effect.
At least one half the people of the State, we
might say of the world, place the utmost con-
fdence in quackery, and the grosser the cheat,
ia many instances, the frmer the faith. Man
kind delights in being humbagged.
Doubtless the pleasure is as great
OF being cheated, as to cheat"
There have been quacls and humbugs from
the beginning of the world, and there will
doubtless be such as long as il continues to
exist. People have become SO familiarised
with them, there is such pFoclivity to them in
mans nature, that they are irresistible. You
must change the constitution of man before
you can put them down. No penal law, how
severe soever can effect it, In England, the
laws against quackery are very stringent
more SO, probably, than in any other country
except France-and yetmere quack medicine
is sold in London, and more quack doctors
make their fortunes there than in all the rest OF
the world put together.
Still, though the society may, and we have
no doubt will, find it impossible to put down
quackery altogether, it may greatly reduce it
while at the same time it may elevate thestand-
ard Of excellence, moral and professional, Of
the whole medical fraternity. But in order to
dose, they should put in a prosiso to the bill
now before the Legislature, requiring, as a con.
dition precedent TO the establishment of board
for the examination of, physicians graduating
since the passage of the law. that practitioners
who shall have graduated previously thereto
shall likewise submit to an examination, and its
consequences. These last we would have ex.
ahmed by the National Medical Convention
or by a number of that Convention delegated
for the purpose. And further, we would have
no man to sit as a member of the proposed
Board of Examiners, whe had not himself
been subjected to this ordeal of an examina-
tion by the National Medical Convention. This
proceeding would make all things perfectly
fair and equal. 1t would place the new and
the old practitioner on the same ground. We
cannot conceive that any physician of stand
ing would object to It, for surely such man
would not hesitate to undergo the operation Of
the prescr ption which he makes out for apo.
Their. We expect to hear that it will meet with
their hearty concurrence, and that the whole
body will take pride in having their pretensions
canvassed with the utmost freedom.