The New Orleans Democrat., 1876-05-05
A HEALTHY OLD BOARD.
TsE rEHVINAsIrv or AN AunuvsO, =
PHYSICIAN.
Ihe Abs"rdits af ~ Inv anh tts ncpr-
ings on sertshahie Gooas

In accordance with law the Board of
Health will have to hold a meeting
sometime this month. when. in the opin-
ion Of some people. n lively time is ex-
recsed and another Of those outrageous
scenes which have marked the reign Of
the Radical party may occur. that is.
the su3velsion Of the present otgnnza-
tion through some arbitrary process of
Hawkins Court.
" will he remembered that n few
weeks ago the Board of Health. com
posed ~ nine members. namely .
Messrs. fired Shaw. W J Woodward
and +. Heath and Doctors Hire,
Smythe and White. Republicans and
NState anrontece. and Doctors Glutint.
lIunev and Lemonnier, Democrats
ele>ted hy the CITY Council. proceeded
to feMganize for the year and elected
he following officers Dr Gaudet.
Ptesilenk Dr. Lemonnier. Secretary.
aud seYen\ sanitary inspectors as fol
lows First District Or. Hire. Radical.
vice Herrick. Democrat Second Dis
trict Df. Taylor, vice Dr Newman,
lladical. Third District DR.. Russell,
trict DR.. Holt. re elected. Fifth Dis
trict -DubucIet. vice Pratt. Democrat.
Sixth Dislrct-Dr. Bayley, reelected
seventh District DR.. Ryan. vice DR..
Henry. Those not denomnRted are
non politicians. who were selected. like
the others, for their individual merit It
is in evidence that all the members
of the Board were present and particiz
pated ut this election. DR.. g. u. White.
who had been until then the President
OF the Board since it's organization.
fully aware Of that fact. but sorelv dis
appointed at his defeat. when the result
had been made public, suddenly dis
covered that for several years he and
the other members of the Board had
been acting illegally in falling to take
special oath OF Office. which he claims Is
required by "an act to establish quar-
antine for the protection OF the State"
which says that the members OF the
Board "shall he selected with references
to their known zeal in favor OF a quar-
antine aystem," and "they shall be
commissioned for the term of one year
after having filed and subscribed in the
office of the Secretaty of State an oath
we'll and truly TO comply with the
provisions Of said act, aud in case Of
failure or neglect within ten days
after appointment or election.
their office shall be declared
vacant. Mr.. Alfred Shaw and DR. Hire.
both Republicans. should. however. be
excepted In the category Of delinquent
members, for, as though by intuition.
they had previously taken special oath
81 otlire As these two gentlemen had
voted with Drs. Finuey. Lemonnier and
Gaudet at the reorganization. and as
they stood unimpeachabe in their
status. aud as they could naturally be
depended upon To maintain the orgatf-
cation which they had assisted In crea-
ting by casting their votes with the ma
lority. they were nnceremoniously re-
moved from office, and Drs. q. W. Lewis
and :. G. Russell appointed In their
stead by Kellogg. The evident object Of
this act Of violence was to permit DR..
White To inaugurate n revolution in the
board and have himself reelected its
president. now that he could depend on
the votes Of Doctors Lewis aud Russell
Meanwhile Doctors Finney, I,emonnier
aud Gaudet. simply in order to avoid
discussion on the point. took n special
oath. according to DR.. Whites
views But DIR. White. who
has served several terms ON
the board without taking such
an oath. now claims that when the
organization was effected. only two of
the members were qualified. and hence
the reorganization must take place
again. The question now arises whether
Kellogg had any right to remove the
two members whom he had appointed
for the term of one year. or during their
good behavior. for II does not appear
that Mr.. Shaw and DIR. Hire. two
sataunch Republicans. have behaved
badly but. even then. It occurs to US
that they could be removed finally
only by impeachment. On the
~, n, Iur h.,u H.,
sorupulously careful to qualify them
selves according to the strictest
construction that DR.. White puts upon
the law after his discovery Of the mares
nest. Neither did they ill-behave
themsel Ives from a partisan point of
view. since under the new organization
the Republicans gained one sanitary
inspector. The law establishing quar-
antine does not. however. prescribe any
particular oath to be taken, but simply
requires the members to swear that
they will we'll and truly comply with
the provisions of tho quarantine law
ms law. by the way, contains an ab-
surdity which should not be Eassed
by unnoticed. It is that portion which
provides that the members to be ap-
pointed to the board shall be selected |
in reference to their known zeal i'm favor
of u quarantine system. II is useless TO
go into discussion OF what is to be
by quarantine system, for
~ many opinions might be found IA
there are physicians in this city. IT, |
however. ii signifies that the quarantine |
system in question is that which has
been followed by the Board Of Health I
in the past seven or eight years. then.
indeed. it takes the form OF stupidity, /
and excludes from its body n large ma
ority Of our ablest and most distin-
yuished physicians who have unreserv-
IDLY pressed opinions adverse to 1t.
To return to the special oath of office.
Il is evident that it was intended to be
AIKEN ut u time when the act had not yet
been embodied in our statutes, and as,
II many other similar cases. may have
been deemed necessary. But now that
he act Ia actually u part OF those States,
t amounts to imbecility to say that a
member of the board who swears that he
will support the constitution and laws
# the State, has not fully complied with