Daily globe., 1881-06-23


tislng his place of business and business
hours seems to be an absurdity. In
cases OF accident or of grave surgical opera
ton, where peculiar circumstances attending
the patient do not, through motives of delica-
cy, render their publication lnadvisable, be-
lieve that as matter of news called for by the
public, the press has the right to all the par
tculars, including the names of the pbysi
clans IN attendance, and that the particulars
| should, as matter of justice to prevent error,
be furnished by the physician himself.
The press OF to-day is the power of the land.
1t is the great educator and the great leveler.
1t makes and unmakes more men than
| initiates them; its good will is eagerly sought
by the clergy; is heartily appreciated and util-
lzed by the lawyer; and through its columns
even the usefulness of the army is aided or i'm
paired; it is at once the greatest aid to true re-
| ligiOn and the greatest enemy to sham: the
greatest power in forcing justice through the
moulding of public sentiment which sits be-
hind every jury, and the greatest stimulant to
| patriotism In the ranks of the army.
| To every profession but the medical, the
| record of good work done, the praise, the
blame, is stimulant to further exertion to
better action-and withal a powerful lever to
use IN forwarding the honorobe and legitimate
ends OF their professional life.
| do not here argue that il is or is not de-
COIOuo W dQNTlGISCy UUG tudt IL Io uOG Ill Guc
! province of q code to determine the question.
| If the code were abolished, but short time
wonld elapse before the good sense of the pro-
| fessiOn would, through an unwritten law,
much more powerful than any written code,
settle the question emphatically, and he gull
| ty of constant violation of good taste speedily
| be Ostraclsed from professional affiliation by
common consent.
| Article 4, of the duties of physicians in
regard to consultations; section /, states a
trusm in holding the only professional evil
dence of professional abilities and acquire
| ments to be regular medical education, or
| stated equivalent thereto, but, the policy of
| its deduced conclusion that all others should
| be excluded is doubtful.
| The first duty of the profession is TO the
public. Any step, therefore, which it can
take to secure public welfare, is taken in the
right direction. The avowed object of this
| rigorous exclusion of all irregular practtion-
ers from the benefits of consultations is to set
the seal of public disproval upon them and in
directly to force them out of profes ssioual exist
ence, in the interests of public welfare. That
this result is devoutly to be hoped for,
am the last to dispute. But, does this means
best accomplish this end? Or, does this m eth
cd appear to the public rather in the light Of
| persecution, and therefore, in reality, tend to
keep them in existence, upon the principle
| that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of
| the church?
The law of the survival of the fittest should
| nowhere hold good to greater degree than
| among medical men, regular and irregular,
and if, with our vaunted superiority, We fail
| to survive when put to the test of bedside as
| sociatiOn, then, and then only, can we be
| justified, as a matter OF self-protection, in
holding aloof from them, and insisting upon
the rigorous enforcement of the rule above
| quoted.
20 10 10 Gfoko 10
| feed through unwillingness of the patient to
wound the feelings of an irregular practitioner
| by a dismissal and the employment of regu-
| lar "a step which, with his limited knowledge
Of the relative value of his attendants services
as compared with those of some regular,
seems to be leap in the dark), and inability TO
procure a consultation from the regular
which would not only save his life, but Illus
! trate the difference between one who after
regular education was at liberty to utilize the
| accumulated wisdom of all men and to pre-
scribe any medicine In any dose which seemed
| to him wisest, and one whose teaching limits
| him to the practice of a dogma to the exclu-
| sion OF many an indisputable factor worse,
| with one who has had no teaching to limit him
| to anything.
| We may, perhaps, feel the freer to discuss
this matter from this standpoint, inasmuch as
| so conservative journal as the British Medi-
| cal has opened its columns for its discussion.
| In my opinion the code, as it stands, obliges
| us to protect the Irregular" ignoramus some
| times to the Retriment of his patients, while
| failing to permit the educated regular the use
of the powerful weapon, knowledge, ever
ready at his command for the discontinue of
| the irregular prastllioner.
| As to the remainder of the code can but
ask the question, Cui bono. Do we need to be
taught that we should treat each other as
gentlemen? That we can commit greater
larceny than that of purse? That it is
more our dnty to prevent than cure? If these
| questions must be answered in the affirmative,
| then is our vaunted nobility-upon which SO
many changes have been rung-a myth.
Conservative men, and, indeed, all who op-
pose the refOrmer or reViser, are prone to call
him an iconoclast and to inquire what he~Yill
set up as better than that which he has cast
down. The most powerful government of the
world to-day has NJ written constitution and
our country is fast drifting towards the same
condition. Unwrtten law is everywhere more
powerful than the written. would destroy
the written code, that one unwritten, of vast
| ly more force, might arise from its ashes, and
would suggest as remedy for the evils for
which it endeavors to provide, the one ON
nipotent force in man-knowledge. would
| insist upon such preliminary education before
the student entered upon his medical course,
| tina. not only was his mind fitted for the re-
ception and retention of the vast truths of
| the science, but his moral nature developed to
such an extent as no other means can accom-
plish; and his gentlemanly instincts brought
| out and enlarged, as constant intercourse with
scholarly men during his academic course
cannot fail to do. Then such medical course
should be insisted upon as would leave no
superficial training, no cramming of facts for
special occasions, to be forgotten as the occa-
sion passes-but course OF instruction pass
| ing over period of from four to seven years
which is the minimum time in which
knowledge of our science adequate to our du-
ties can be obtained. The first generation of
such physicians would need no code to teach
them to be men.
| But some of the evils which our code at
! tempts to reach cannot be cured by elevation
of the professional standard, and we will fiEd it
necessary to apply the touch-stone to the peo-
| pie. Insist that the children shall be taught
anatomy, physiology and chemistry, pari
passa with their ordinary studies, increasing
their knowledge in these branches proportion
ately as they advance in their academic studies
until they are prepared to understand and ef-
| ficienty assist the scientific physician in his
effort for their welfare, ans are able to recog
nize of their own knowledge the educated
scientist from the dogmatic lgnoramus.
Throw aside all superstition attached TO the
profession of medicine, take time and pains to
make its positive laws plain and simple to the
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