Daily globe., 1881-02-07
THE MEDICAL LAW.
The Regulars" Go for a Globe Correspond
ent and Make Mince Meat of Him.


ent and Make Mince Meat of Him.
To the Editor of the Globe
SHAKoPEE, Jan. 31.-In your issue of this
morning is a communication on "Quackery,"
but what the hyper-religious, doctorhating,
monomaniacal author wishes to prove by it
is not very evident. Ii seems to be an outburst
of hatred against a profession which contains
men of the highest scientific, social and moral
worth in this and other civilized countries;
and in no way to bear upon the question of
regulating the practice of medicine so rs to
protect the ignorant and weak from the rava-
ges of human yultures. His style and quota
tions are the stereotyped ones used by part
of small religious sect who are mostly
monomaniacs upon the subject of hygiene and
the seventh day. And though I never heard
of the man before; feel sure l could give
perfect sketch of him from his short article
So much for the admirer OF the "Great Hary-
ard" Now let. me give sketch of few
incidents in medical practice occurring within
radius of fifteen miles around this place dur
ing the past four months.
A girl 16 years of age fell from a horse, re-
ceiving simple fracture Of the forearm.
There lived in the neighbOrhoOd white haired
man, albeit he could neither read nor write,
and knew nothing of anatomy, who was a
famous "bone SETTER" and he sset" many
bones cheaply; this one for the sum of 3d.
He came, and with four or five Others, pulled
and jerked the arm for time, and did it up in
a way wonderous to behold, and attended it
for ten days, the girl suffering the torments of
hell. Then, to use the biblical style of our
friend, the "body stinketh." Now, he said,
''it was all right" That smell was just what
he wanted. But 1t stunk so badly that one of
those terrible ''alopath' doctors was sent for
to smell it. found the arm SO tightly band
aged as to stop the circulation of blood,
the arm mortified, and the patient beginning
to be poisoned; not by arsenic, etc., but by
the gangrenOus matter with which she had
lain for several days. With the assistance of
another terrible ''alopath' doctor l amputa-
ted the arm near the shoulder to give the only
slim chance for life. / may say, however,
that suppose we are "alopaths" according to
your correspondent, though we have no par
ticular motto. 1t seems to me l have heard
"cOntrGriG cOutrariuS, etc.," at sometime,
but am certain it was not in any of the three
leading medical colleges of New York; in our
medical societies or from my professional as
sociates, nor yet in my medical library; but
now and then some contrary party who is
neither flesh, fish nor fowl.
But to return to the subject-the girl finally
recovered manned for life, and in her station
untitled to be the wife sOf a labOring man,
which she probably would have been. We
have laws to prevent the ignorant and vicious
from ,chipping an or Or an ass; but an ig-
nOrant ass may mutilate an innocent girl and
put her life in jeopardy, and when forsoothe
doctor whom some ignorant enemy chooses to
dub ''alopath'' calls the attention of legisla.
admirer adm - of of the great Harvard,
trying to get monopoly. And here l would
suggest to the admirer of that ancient seat Of
learning, that when the public has no more
use for doctors, l am of the opinion that all of
us who are worthy of the name will find other
honorable and useful ways of getting a living
without taking up collection
Our friend is in error, too, in that these
quacks do not take away our business; they
increased in the above case tive-fold. Nor am
| so avoricious as not to wish the poor girl
had her arm and her parents their money.
Another man calling himself doctor forced
an obseric forceps through woman's
womb, destroying her aud her offspring. Yet
an attempt to ask every practitioner to show
that he has even arudmentary medical educa-
ton calls out train of clarivoyants, pseudo
hygenists and pathists to fight against a mo-
nopoly.
Another man in our country who cannot
pass criditable examination in any branch of
learning except hypocrisy, if that be learning,
diagnosticates all disease by looking at the
He has physiced and maltreated scrofulous
infant with regular disease Of the spine
for worms, until the time for proper
treatment is just. He has made many hypo-
condriacs to believe that they have serious Or
ganic diseases and robbed them of peace of
mind and money, and only authorities beyond
the Styx know how many he has slain.
Midwiyes or rather ignorant old women
have killed several women and murdered in
re by I hav nd fNn
three of these practitioners recussitating still
born children by blowing in their ears.
tramp, too lazy to work. attired in a buck
skin suit and accompanied by Il prostitute and
two singing tramps have sold hundreds of
packages OF worthless roots; called on patients
of local hard working physicians boasted in
his public harrangues of our inability to cure,
and his success in restoring to health, patients
who died the next day. lie took double fees
of cash and credit of curing, proved () us in
ferior to punch and judy show and left ms
worthless accounts as our pay for being time
and again dragged from our beds at mid
night.
Your admrer of the "great Harvard" was
he ever there: says ''three centuries ago such
articles as skulls, nevis, frogs, etc. were prom
inent remedies in that profession" few
more centuries ago and our friends grand
father was an ape and did many, in those days,
unbecoming things; yet If he were
gentleman to-day that would be no discredit
10 him. Less than three centuries ago his
religion rousted people and did many other
acts of pure cussedness much more uncom-
Portable than taking few grains of bone or
a dead insect. However silly Or ridiculous q
dose of bedbug may be, it is preferable to
incarceration. So that even in those days
medicine wa, in advance of theology.
True some doctors love to disagree for sake
of notoriety. Yet it is remarkable how little
the best physicians disagree in principles
which are essential to practice. Our art is
based upon scientific facts, to which are added
many opinions as to how best to carry out
principles. As to science there can be no
difference of opinion, and as to the opinions it
little matters what becomes of them. But
never heard it yet disputed that ligated limb
would mortify; that a man had dpower enough,
if his brains did not control it, to kill a
woman in confinement; that one ignorant of
anatomy could kill man with knife; or that
one ignorant of drugs and poisons could over
dose patient; or that pretendcr could rob a
patient of money.
No regular practitioner has ever proposed a
law to exclude other systems of practice.
Humane medical gentlemen have
proposed to ask of every man who
assumes control of the sick to show
that he knows something of the sciences of