Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-03-08
"DOCTORs VS.. QUACKs"

"DOCToRs VS.. QUACKs'
What is As,t.eins Msdicsl Circles Hsrs
I. sAeats. = u Il ~ J.
At the February meeting of the Ian
caster County Medical Society the matter
of quaek practitioners was discussed, and
committee was appointed to get The
names of such persons now practicing ir
Lancaster, with a view Of having then
prosecuted under the provisions of the ac'
| of March oath, 1877. This committee
consisting of Drs Bolenius, Welchans, and
Blackwood, at late meeting of the society
reported the names OF the following alleged
violators of this law DR.. C. A. Greene, DR..
Joshua w. Potts, DR.. John Campbell, and
Doctress Harriet Sweeney.
The provisions of the law of 1877 are to
the effect that those who announce them
selves as medical practitioners must either
have diploma from chartered and duly
authorized medical college, or must have
practiced five years continuously prior to
March "a, 1877. Those who have no di-
ploma must make affidavit to their prac-
tice and intention before the prothonotary.
in whose office records Of the same shall
be kept. Transient practitioners and itin-
Grants, advertising medical services or
proposing to cure the ailing, must furnish
evidence of their eligibility to practice,
under the act of 1877, to the clerk of quar-
ter session, and pay license fee of $50 for
the year, and s. fee to the clerk. Failure
to comply with the act renders the
party so offending liable to fine of $500
to $4O0 for each offense.
The act also defines the standard quail
fications of a medical practitioner to be
the following : A good moral character, a
thorough elementary education, a COM
prehensive knowledge of human anatomy,
human physiology, pathology, chemistry,
maateria medica, obstetrics, and practice of
medicine and surgery, and public hygiene.
The committee of the medical society
handed the names above mentioned to
District Attorney Eshleman, with request
that legal proceedings be commenced
against them. The district attorney hand
ed the names to Alderman Spurrier to in
augurate proceedings. Alderman Spurrier
has as yet taken no action in the NATTER
but the subject having been made public
has caused good deal of comment on the
streets
A reporter of the INTELLIGENCER inter-
viewed several of the parties interested
and obtained, in addition to what is above
stated, the following facts:
DR.. G. A. Greene states that he studied
medicine and graduated in 184S at Berk-
shire medical college, Mass, an institution
that stands as high as any medical cole &c in
the country, and that he has practiced
medicine ever since. Early in his medical
experience he became convinced that med
icine and surgery, as practiced by the fac
ulty generally, was susceptible of many
improvements. He believes his researches
have put him in possession of scientific
facts and remedies for the cure of disease
of which doctors generally know little or
nothing. In confirmation of this he enum-
crates many remarkable cures effected by
him, in this city and elsewhere, after the
patients had been given up by the most
eminent physicians and surgeons. He says
he came here to reside permanently,
opened an Office at No. 236 North Queen
street, which he thinks compares favorably
in all its appointments with any Office in
the city; that his diploma hangs on his
Office wall i; that he made application to
become 4 member of the medical society,
and intends to make application until he is
elected, or knows the reason why he is re-
jected. He states that he is an Omnipa-
thist and accepts that which is good in all
systems of medicine and rejects that which
is bad. He appears to be rather pleased
with the fact that his name has been con-
nected with quackery, as it will enable
him to show that he has said and written
more against quackery than perhaps any
physician in the county. He insists that
the proceedings instituted against him
shall go on, SO that he may be able to Sc
cure full and complete vindication.
In brief interview with DR.. Potts that
gentleman said he was not a graduate of
any medical college, but that he had been
a successful practitioner for twenty-five
years. When the law af 1877 was passed,
he was one of the first, ifnot the very first,
in this city, to comply with its provisions.
He went to the Office of the prothonotary,
made the necessary affidavit, paid the
stipulated fee, and was duly registered as a
legal practitioner.
DIR. Campbell was next called on, but
that gentleman was not at home and his
status under the law could not therefore be
nor could an interview he had
this morning with Doctress Sweeney.
Two or three members of the medical
society were briefly interviewed but no
new facts were gathered. We called at
The Office of the prothonotary to take a
look at the book in which are registered
the names of licensed non-graduated prac
titioners but the clerks in the Office could
not find it-and the "old reliable" =" clerk,
VIM. E. Kreider, was unavoidably absent.
We will call again.
DRUNKEN ROWDIES.