Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1860-01-11
From the Wilmington Journal
THE MEDICAL BOARD. NO. 2.

was showing in my last that the runous system
pursued by the medical Colleges in issuing diplo-
mas to disqualified persons, has been bringing the
regular scientific physicians of the United States
into disrepute with the public. As one of the le-
climate results Of this miserable eectioneering pol
icy of theirs, the chief implements of the regular
physician in his warfare against disease, have also
suffered unus,ly IN public estimation. The course
pursued by thus licensing ignorance often combined
with immortality, tends to render the public, who are
imperfcctly qualified to pass Judgment upon the
skill and qualifications of physicians, :keptical
to the regular system of medical science that has
been built on the accumulated experience and obser-
walton of all ages and countries for more than two
thousand years EmpirciSm has taken advantage of
these doubts in the public Mind and has so excited
popular prejudice against calomel, bsters, the
lancet, and other implements of regular practice,
that many citizens of the United States have been
driven into the arms of the ignorant and the
trums of the quack.
The public would have none but competent per-
sons to practice medicine; the parent would intro
duce none other than the honest and gentlemanly
practitioner to the bedside Of his sick daughter,
wife, or sister; he would not, if he knew it, toll
crate the presence of the black leg bertne at this
sacred shrine of female innocence and virtue where
his affections cluster in pure and holy devotion. -
But he need not look to diploma for reliable
guarantee that his physician is either mentally,
morally, or professionally competent to minister to
the many and complicated ills of the human sys-
tenn IF he depends on the Medical Colleges for
qualified practitioners, he will depend upon broken
reed.
Hence, the necessity of every State protecting
herself against the impostions of Medical Colleges
North Carolina has within her own borders, true
able, learned physicians, every way qualified to
pronounce justly and impartiay upon the qualifca-
tons of those proposing to engage in practice with
hnr Nloo ,o( In.T
manifests her appreciation of this TRUTH as shown
in the triumphant passage of bill to guard against
the wiles to which have alluded
The bill providing for the institution of this Med
cal board is measure wise, salutary and necessa.
| ry for the welfare Of our good old Commonwealth.
ltprovides that from and after the fifteenth of April
last, no man calling himself doctor, shall be en-
titled by law to collect his medical fees, unless he
has license to practice from this Medical Board
recognizes the State Medical Soclety-the repre-
sentative of the Medical Profession of the Stately
an act of Incorporation and provides that it shall
be the duty Of said Medical body to elect said Board
once in every six years. unless the Legislature shall
choose to exercise this right. The Board are to
meet in May of each year, and alternately at Ra-
Leigh and Morganton. The Board consists of seven
members. They are to make their own BYLAWS.
and regulations that may be necessary to carry out
the purposes of their appointment They are to be
paid, each member, four dollars day when on duty,
and their travelling expenses paid. The Board
contemplates no expense to the State, but is self
sustaining Institution; each successful candidate
being required to pay, not twenty dollars, as oppo-
nents assert but ten dollars for license to practice
They are to sit from day to day until all applicants
are examined and are to be the judges of the quail
tications of those who may come before them. To
-uard against temporary Inconvenience, any two
members of the Board may, on examination, grant
temporary license to extend to the next regular
meeting and no longer the SUM of five dollars be.