Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-03-04
THE PRACrI,E mEp1CISE.

night, ref -cted honor upon the faculty,
The profession and the city. The cere-
monies, from the salutafory Of ]. G. Hay |
entertaining. Memphis boasts Of Its schools |
its churches. tie press, its hotels and ali |
the prerequisites for constituting grea |
CITY, and 1t is no less proud OF Its Medi |
cal College. This institution il gaining
deserved popularity, and the day is no.
far distant when its diploma will be the
boast OF nearly all The young physicians o.
the South. The world thinks more about
living than dying, and It is not surprisiDg
that men and women think as much OF the
mily physician, who cures their bodily in
6ruities, ss the minister who looks alter
their spiritual wants. The family physician
il essential to every well-reguDsted family,
because they .
"ReDder with their precepts less
Tn sum of human wretehednss'
But the jeslousies among physicians de-
tract much from the profession. All probes
sions are getting out OF the old grooves and
ruts except the medical profession. There is
the widest scope of thought in religion
| Clergymen can now utter thoughts which
City years ago would have been regarded as
heterodox- iu6delity. But the medical fra
| lernity stands firm to its Bourbonism. 10
| primitive times it adopted a code, and that
| code ia still regarded as iD6exible as the
I laws of the Medes and Persians. Instead OF
allowing every physician who holds di-
| poma 10 practice, other physicians sit in
| Judgment rpon q man in the same profession
and he is ostracised-placed under the ban,
if hey ,adjudge him fraud and hum
bug OF late an effort has been made
to liberslizs the profession. There are
free.thinkers in medicine as in re-
| Iigion and everything else. The system OF
| excIuslyeness in medical practice is all
7 wrong. Every physician should be ready,
| in the alienation of human misery, to meet
on equal ground, every other who Is q Physi-
| cisn, no matter of what school he may be.
This view is suppIanting the old Bourbon
notions of the profession everywhere. /, is
now generally admitted by sllopaths that
homeopathy has taught them something, and
even that the eclectic system had added new
aud valuable remedies TO the old list. The
old cede requiring that no regular" physi-
| clan should hold consultation with "dog-
malisr" has been abandoned in New York.
Tne new code there has the following rule
governing consultations:
|. Members of the Medical Society of the State Of
New York, and of the medical societies IN afifia
| ton Herewith. may meet in consultation legally
| ouaihed practitioners of medicine. Emergencies
may occur in which all restrictions should, In the
Judgment of the practitioner, yield to the de-
| mands of humanity. Eef
A week ago a special meeting Of the Med
ical Society of the County of New York wa,
held 70 consider the new rule, 300 members
, of the society being present. DR.. Roosa Of
Tered the following as the sense Of the meeting
IResolued, That the Medical societyo Of the County
of New York approve Of the engagement .s e me
York adopted at the annual meeting In Feoru-
AIRY 1882. aud that we ind"rse the system OF meoi-
cal ethics Their in substituted for the former one
especially because it caves the matter of e"nsul'
| tatu n TO the di.cretion, the honesty and human
| ity of the Individual practitioner
In advocacy Of bis bill the doctor said:
The time has gone by when such trivisli'ies ss
are TO be found in the old code can be reasonably
| taken notice OF by the profession. The arguments
againt the new code center simply on the sues
whole matter IL is said snht we are about 70 t4kt
the homeopathic into our ms. and that thi'
Of sSs t...a,STse- -sfrnpfy says chat We
81 An idea has prevailed IN the pat that for :
regular physician to consult with ho neop I'll
g-s equivalent to his committing murder. Iht
IDEAL was absurd, and rejoice that the new cud'
gives us a lit personal liberty on this question
Dr.. G. B. Agnew said:
From some Of the things which have been sai'
} here TO nj hit one might suppose that we wer
living in The first hall Of the seventeenth century
r destroyed
| by persecution. l advocate the new code becaus
'tisiu zee ping with the refined et.ics Of the tim
in which we live Nothing could be safer thai
the new rule governing consultations. When The
Did code came into ext tence there we're, perhaps
a score of hOmeopat IS in his country; nov tn r
are fully 5000. What has persecution done to dc
T fat error he'e7 You can't re-enact the old pro
| scripive, trades-union code ii you want TO 1t
! dead letter like the fug iiv slave law, and tni
society should recogn z- the fact.
: Dr. Fordyce Barker said: /
The exclusive dogma of the old code has dig
: nified a faiss doctrine to such an extent that !,
2 has srJwn into new school. which has many fol
| lowers Amoug the public Exclusive dogmas ar
not cOuhne1 to toe homeoPsthic school. he he!
school and many of these exclusive dogmss'
: are far more dangerous than those OF the homes
homeopathists. I'VE are meeting with exclusive
4; dogmas in the profession COS stantly," sid Dr.
Z | Barker, land these doemas are generally rel
tion of the accumu Hted experience OF phi sicfan $
70 quote the old code. If we called to consul
| with q homeo iathtst in order 10 rave the life Q
vii Win hIm and Undo the evil which he has done
, we can Ilaughterl, and 1 sm glad that We have
code at last that permits Us to DO our whole dnt,
TO humanity. GaE
The resolution was adopted by vote of 49,
to fcrty-three, and this vote will be sustsinee
by the common sense of the country. Within
! most Of the States of this Union these medi
cal ssocistions-alIopathic,h homeopathic anC
eelectic-have the power to declare who shall
or shall not practice medicine. 1t does no
, matter what credentials a physician may
have. He may be graduate of the fore
, most medical college in the land, may hav'
had long experience in practice, may be rec
ogniz,d as a skillful physician, and may b
genius in his profession, and yet may b
debsrred from the practices by
body of men of whom some hsv,
not graduated at sll, and whose skill ma,
be matter OF doubt. II the medical a.so
citation representing the system OF practic
d which he follows condemns him IS guilty o
"unprofessional Conduct and revokes hi
: license to practice, he has no further re
. course. There are no written charges, n,
trial, no appeal, no redress. @Unprofes
( sional conduct" is very vague, and ma.
u mean something or nothing. II aphysicial
i chooses to devote himself to the disease o
II consumption as a specially, and advertise
!, himself as specialist. and his trsatmen
u attracts consumplive patients, the medi
. cal association may revoke his licens,. an
the law operates to prevent him from attend
y ing as physician upon any sick person.
y few days since we heard the views Of DR.. Il
II vine Keller, OF Hot SPRING., Ark.- one Of u
= most talented physicians Of the South fer b
y age, and be showed himself imbued wit
d the advanced spirit of the age, and Al
II gued that bis profession should pr
II gress and lift itself above the prsj adlc'
re- conceived in ignorance and intolersnc
u Under the cd code, an allopath under Ii
ID ban Of the regular" association is poWerle,
p" TO practice, while that association has .
D authority over q homeopath, nor the home
re pathic association any over an allopatl
es The eclectic associate can license vboms'
ever it ple,ses, and the other association
n are powerless to prevent it. Thus an al
IS and honest physician may be ruled o.
% by one association, while notoriol
H- quack may be licensed BY anoths
Is; The whole system is radically wro'
10 and needs smendment and MAJ
be pr.cticing pbysicisna candidIy admit tn
'e' /, has not succeeded in driving out all Z
~ incompetent and malprsc,itioners. by a
y, means; on the contrary, 1t has firmly
~ trenched a number Of them, and given the
~ a standing With the credulous and unwa
co that they would not otherwise have obtains
IN The Law should, perhaps, require eve
oil practicipg physician 10 have diploma fr'
o' some college of good reputs and recogni'
al standing, but Il should not allow any cote
w Of physicians to rule out Of prae'iee .
n man who has such credentials. The me-
Ter cal profession, like all o'hers must cot io'
mt from it's old-fogy ian. This is an age OF
ed GRANGE, and the code conceived in bisO'
ow and ignorance must give place to liberal
re and the largest liberty.
at u.r.ford,s Acid Phosphaie
ou .,,,,u OF ALCOHOL.