The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1875-09-04

Mr.. EDITOR II have heard of a transaction dur
ing the week that leads me to enquire Where are
we drifting to? And what next? OF course l am
not making an authoritative statement; simply relat-
ing the matter as it came to me from O reliable
source. y gentleman. who has been identified with
the country and with the Hawaiian race for over
forty years, has been in the habit of prescribing
remedies for the maladies Of the race-for many
years without the authority of a license, but for the
past ten years under q license from the Board Of
Health-has received o peremptory demand to sur
render his license, without cause assigned. By hear
ing q little here and a little there the conclusion is
arrived at that somebody has made a complaint to
the Board, charging malpractice, possibly man
slaughter. Upon this er pGrte statement the Board
issues its mandate. One would suppose that the
foreign members Of the Board would have suggested
furnishing the party charged with so grave an
offense with n copy Of the charges. and have re-
quested a reply; that they would have secuted the
idea of passing judgment upon a fellow man without
giving him a chance to defend himself, even before
so august q body; but as the foreign members are in
the majority l must conclude that they have allowed
temper to master judgment. Let me ask them 10
apply the "Golden Rule . to their action, and see
how it will square.
Setting aside the matter from a personal stand
point, how about the principle involved? With this
action of the Board for a precedent, any license issu-
ing from the Interior Department may be as sum-
marily revoked.
Concerning the ~propriety Of allowing the gentle
man alluded to TO practice among natives, or others
requiring treatment, l have an opinion which may
be worth consideration. I need not remark that the
ills to which natives are peculiarly liable are increas-
ing; that death scores his victims with alarming
rapidity.
The stricken native casts about for treatment, he
has, l am sorry to say, a strong prejudice against
the hospital practice, although given without price;
he thinks Of this or that one of our many regular
practitioners, but the fee for advice and the charge
for medicine,-a knowledge of which he has by his
own or q neighbours experience warns him that his
purse cannot bear the cost. The choice remaining
to him is limited, be thinks Of his old-time friend,
the friend of his race, not a regularly educated
physician, not equipped with the, to the average
mind, mystical parchment, so easily attainable now
a-days; but withal, or rather without all, a practi-
toner who has been successful in his treatment Of
disease, who has now the confidence of the native
race to a remarkable degree. The sick native may
send for him or he may summon the regularly
licensed, recognized "kahuna." Alas, the SUPER
stitions of the race are so strong that in too many
instances the native " kahuna s" is summoned, who
alone Is supposed to be able to cope with native dis
eases; for, as they reason, how can foreign medicines
reach the mai maoH.
VIII any careful thinker admit for a moment that
the foreigner alluded to is not the more competent
person to treat the sick; that he is by far the superior
of the average, aye, or the best kahuna." 1t is
said on every hand that the malpractice Of the
kahuna is decimating the population. AZ the
native cannot afford the fee aud charge Of our regu-
lar practitioners, as his prejsdices, i'll or well founded,
will not permit him to 60 TO the hospital. il it not
better to let him have access to the gentleman
alluded to, than to thrust him of upon the kahuna ?
| am advised that the gentleman who has been 90 SUM
msrily visited by the wrath az the Board is always