Daily Los Angeles herald., 1882-03-08
lConcluded.l


lConcluded.l
But If there are quGcks among
doctors and druggists, there are
quacks also among lawyers who
undertake bad cases of malprac-
tice, and that are always seen
where there is something to fish
out of troubled water. Heaven
forbid that should say that there
are such lawyers in Los Angeles!
Happily the bar of our county is
too pure OF suspicion TO attack 1t.
But 1t Is not the same everywhere,
I once kne W, in another county of
California, a lawyer of great learn
lug and eloquence, who always
worked with sincere conviction;
but this wonderful lawyer would
never plead any but just cases;
then be was so goodl He pacified
the contestants and arranged af-
fairs peaceably. 1t was deplora-
BILE; therefore he was scorned at
anu set at naught by his colleagues.
1t was ruin! So he was forced to
quit the profession. AS soon as q
case of malpractice can be brought
on the tapis there is always found
some lawyers who urge the trial.
They lose, almost always, their
causes, but they have received their
fee money and sometimes before
hand. They don't reflect that the
loss OF law suit can, with justice,
be called case of malpractice
just as well as failure to cure B
disease, for they have counseled
and defended cause on a wrong
Interpretation which they have
made of text of positive law,
while the doctor has not, and can
not have any text to guide him in
the practice of a science that is far
from being positive, for often the
most esteemed and celebrated au.
thors frequently contradict each
other IS soon as they come to
speak Of the treatment of q dis
ease.
IIOu oift VIC COhCi0tC tAUt ltCt e
would certainly be fewer cases OF
malpractice if there were fewer
lawyers disposed to sustain the abb
surd pretentions Of certain patients
VINO are as unjust as ignorant; and
this is abundantly proved by the
want Of success so frequent in those
cases.
8. D. Gross has said somewhere:
sit has always appeared to me that
lawyer VINO will permit himself
to bring q suit for malpractice
against an honorable medical man,
known and recognized as such by
the community in which he lives,
must be essentially base and IN
principled man, and l have no
doubt that this would be found the
fact if access could be had to the
records of our courts and their pro.
fessional history ascertained."
We must avOw also that these
trials would be less frequent if the
lawyers found fewer doctors (true
or false) who for jealousy, interest
or personal hatred are quite ready
to assist the prosecution; for in
every trial of this sort we see that
the lawyer is sustained, counselled
by doctors, more or less crippled,
who imagine that this trial will
bring them into notice, and often
these cases only render manifest to
all their capacity, ignorance and
also their immortality. But what
DO these doctors care? They have
nothing to lose!
II Webster's definition of the
quack is true, there are, in our
eyes, still other great quacks and
guilty once. / refer to municipal
councils; from them L except that
of our own city, whose intelligence,
competence and integrity are COM
pletely uDquesti0ned, as everybody
knows. We are speaking only of
municipal councils in general. On
them rests the care of public health.
II the physician has in his cars the
health of individuals, it ia the mu-
nicipal council that must place pa.
tients and physicians in the best
hygienic conditions. Now, are the
cities of California in the best san
itary conditions? We must be per-
mitted to doubt 1t.
The public thoroughfares, often
badly kept, because ia Winter real
marshes that offend the smell and
poison the blood, and in Summer
manufacturers Of dust, that ob-
structs the lungs and introduces
there all sorts OF poisons. This is
evidently the fault of the munich
pal councils!
Incomplete sewers. badly planned,
badly cleaned, and out of order,
often without issue, are permanent
hot-beds of Infection, producer and
propagators OF pestilential epldem-
ic and contagious diseases, much
more terrible and fatal than those
engendered by the Chinese. Is not
that the fault of municipal coun-
ellis?
Under these conditions, what can
the physician do In many cases?
only to Recognize and proclaim his
impotence; for the disease, cured
to-day, often reappears tomorrow,
with greater intensity, because the
cause still exists, always acting for
its reproduction.
There are In California q great
many cities situated in the health
lest valleys, enjoying the finest
climate. erected on sloping ground
favorable for the drainage to the
sea or rivers of all deadly germs,
aud that are yet frequently visited
by terrible epidemics; then, 10 a
great hurry considerable money is
expended, almost always uselessI Y
because it is done at an unseason-
able time. 1t ought to be we'll un-
derstood that the expense laid out
before the invasion Of disease
would have greater efficacy In pre-
venting thar it could have to re-
move or destroy the morbid causes,
because the organs are saturated
with deadly germs, particularly in
those epidemics in which one death
Is followed by dozen new csses!