The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1878-11-01
PRESCRIPTION IN THB MEDICAL
BOARD.
Chicago Times.

BOARD.
Chicago Times.
On Saturday, q medical practitioner of
Chicago asked the courts TO issue an injunc-
ton restraining the board of health from
revoking his license TO practice medicine.
The name OF the physician ID Aiken. Of
what school Of medicine he is member is
not stated, nor does it matter so far as the
merits OF the case are concerned. The
prayer for the injunction to restrain the
board OF health from carrying out its pro-
posed action, states that the reason why
such revocation is CONTEMPT atedxis that he
has been Advertising his professional ser
vices in the daily newspaper---or, in the
language OF tho petition, 1.-THE publication
BY complaint Of divers professional no
tices In divers public newspapers This is
the SUN total OF his offense. He alleges he
Is regularly educated physician, q gradu.
ats Of tho Cincinnati College of Medicine
and Surgery in 1868, and that no ba. been
prscdcing under license issued to him in
July W the Illinois Board Of Health.
The presiding judge refused to grant the
application for the injunction. His main
reasons for the refusal are that the board
Of health has the right To pass upon the
professional or unprofessionsl character Of
oil physicians, and that the courts have no
right TO interfere. In reaching this con-
clusion, the court was under the necessity
OK asserting substantially that the practice
OF medicine 10 neither q constitutional act,
contract, nor property; and hence, an at
tack upon it 10 not legal offense. 1t may
" that man has spent years and fortune
IN acquiring medical education; that he
knows no other profession; and that upon
it depends the bread Of himself and his
family. One man puts oil his time and
savings into sccumulsting stock, say Of
dry goods. This is property, and the
law viii protect it hit is something up
on whose sale depends the bread of the
owner and his family. Now, if a burglar
comes along with an express wagon and
undertakes to cart away the goods, the law
will ct once interfere and send the thief to
the penitsntAry. But when thief, calling
itself the board Of health, undertakes to de-
privs man of bis privilege to earn his
bread by selling and otherwise employing
his medical information, and which has
cost hun years and much money to accu-
mulsts, then tho law gives him no protec-
ton. His stock in trade is not property or
= contract 1t is amply q statusry right.
Either this - very poor, very wretched law,
or else the nan who thus interprets il from
the Chicago bench 10 an ass. When it is
stated that the judge is Williams, it will be
generally inferred that the interpreter rsth-
er than the law is more likely to be at fault
That person has, in his time delivered many
decisions. Az rule, he differs
from the supreme court in his decisions
Perhaps the present instance will prove no
exception to the general rule which he
seems to work under and which 10 ~ 20
"fornist" the higher courtA.
The case has some other noticeable fsa.
lures besides these which embody the mar
vslous conclusion that tho law hss pro,ec.
ton for dry goods, but none for accumuls-
ted facts --thAt it guards the contents OF a
swill cart, but not the contents Of mans
brain. These other noticeable features are
~ discreditable to certain school of medi-
cine as the view Of the law Of the case is to
the law--or Judge Williams There 10 one
school Of medicine--the sllopsthic, or the
"regularS,' Is they delight to term them
selves, the "old school"-which looks upon
advertising in . newspaper with holy hor-
ror Case after case has occurred in All or.
ganisation known a. the Cook County Med.
ical Society, wherein men who have been
guilty Of the henious ofense OF advertising
their business have been tortured with all
the zest peculiar to the prosecution Of
hereto in the palmy days Of the Spanish in.
QUESTION. The society 10 made up of allo.
pathic believers In tho doctrine,
contrHiis curantur. PEG.
pie who have been educated to
believe that thing is cured by producing
a contrary condition have = most deadly
hatred Of people who believe similia simili-
bus curantur, or in any other formula.
They have agreed among themselves that
there is no virtue but among themselves,
and that nobody but themselves shall be
by themselves. Having thus ar.
ranged for close corporation, 80 that
nobody could succeed but themselves they
next proceed to arrange matters so that no
aspiring genius among their own number
should get tho start Of any Of the others.
This was done by passing rules that any
member who should permit tho public to
know through the medium Of the public
prints that he had been particularly sue
cessiul In the treatment OF a case, or u class
Of cases, should DO declared guilty
Of "unprofessionAl conduct" and should
DO expelled. This Is exactly on
the principle Of certain trades
unions, wherein oil people must
be paid alike. An artisan may be able to earn
three times a. much a. poorer workman,
but under the rules he can got no more for
his services. So among the doctors of this
school. One Of the number may be worth
fifty Of the others, bve 10 not allowed to
make tho fact known to the public. It is
not "unprofessional" for . merchant to let
ths pubHS kasw what 10 IN " ettsr, nor "