Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1884-06-10
Stauntoi, $peftator,
TUESDAY, JUNE 10, 1884
Wise Legislation.

TUESDAY, JUNE 10, 1884
Wise Legislation.
1t has been custom for many years in
all enlightened States and communities, for
persons seeking to enter on the practice OF
the learned professions, to undergo pre-
liminary examination touching their ac-
quaintance and familiarity with the various
branches of the science. For many years
in Virginia, candidates for license as prac-
ticing attorneys have been required to ap-
pear and be examined before certain num-
Der of Judges and certificate to this effect, |
and bearing testimony to their fitness,
signed by the Examiners, was exacted as a
legal and indispensable prerequisite for the
issuing of license and admission to the
bar. 1t was held, and very properly so |
that in profession where grave interests
Of property, and the sacred rights Of per-
sons, we're continually the subjects, its
members should be acquainted with the
doctrines and principles to be applied, and
their acquaintance with them should be
demonstrated by rigid examination, and not
simply assumed or taken on trust, because
the applicant had affixed a sign to his door
or window with ATTORNEY -at-Law' duly
inscribed thereon.
1t has been deemed no hardship by the
members of the profession of the Law that
this enactment has been in force, and every
respectable and worthy member of it would
bewail its abolition. 1t is regarded by
them as not only just and right to the peo
pie, but safeguard and protection to the
profession itself The medical profession
has, up to within the last year, been exempt
from this requirement, and we may well
express surprise at the fact. If business
interests require careful protection and the
qualifications of lawyers are to be rigidly
inspected because they are the guardians of
our pocket-books, what should be said of
the qualifications, and our assurance of the
qualifications and aptitude of those to whom
the lives and health of the people are to be
committed. The medical field of Virginia
has been opened to every class of pretend
ers and charlatans to practice his humbug-
gerry, without moleststion or restraint, on
the payment of the legal license fee. Men
of the merest surface knowledge, and men
with no knowledge of any sort, have crowd
ed into the profession, and assuming the
doctorate-to its everlasting disgrace and
degradation-havea abused the confidence of
some, and imposed on the ignorance of 9TH
ers, until the profession at large has felt the
pressure of the incubus to the extent of
seeking some legislative relief; and last
Winter bill providing for the establish
ment of State Medical Examining Com
mission was passed, and it is to be
hoped will be of such practical force and
effect as to crush out the gang of pretend
ers and incompetents who infest its hon
ored ranks, and will have, too, the addi-
tional result of SO elevating the standard of
medical attainments and culture as to re-
tard the rush of lily educated and unpre-
pared young men into its field and thus d-
minishing the quantity by vastly enhancing
tors are to be hereafter made, will exalt
and dignity the healing vocation, while it
materially lengthens the average duration
ofhuman life. The title of Doctor, which at
one time meant something, is in these latter
days utterly without significance. 1t once
suggested years of study and the clustered
life Of the student and the man of letters.
Now young man is suddenly missed from
the field or forge, or Normal schooi-room, and
re-appears at the opening.of Spring with
clothes of metropolitan style and fit, a silk
hat, and is hailed as Doctor, while the star
tied enquirer is informed that old Daddy
Donderhead had, after weighing the matter
profoundly for six weeks, decided that Tom
hadn't sense enough to make farmer or
anything else that required practical ability
of any sort, and being lazy, and 'not tax
ing to work overmuch, and not having any
book-larning nuther, least-wise not enough
to teach school, he calculated he might make
him Doctor" and So he gives him a year
at one of the innumerable self-feeding, au-
tomato double-action medical schools,
with which the country in it's vastness is
cursed, and he is then graduated and turned
loose upon a helpless community to work
his fatal pleasure, without let or hindrance
1t is for this state of things that the COM
mission is established. Not to interfere
with the personal liberty or freedom of &C
ton of any man or school of men, or any
school Of medicine. 1t is only to put in the
hands of the people and Of the profession.
the means of knowing that man is what
he declares himself to be, and that he has
the learning and the qualities that are in
dispensably and inseperabiy associated
with the character and title he assumes
Before he obtains a license he is required
to present to the officer issuing it, his signed
certificate from the Examining board, set
ting forth and attesting his fitness for the
work he solieits. His competitors are re-
quired to do the same. Where is the in
justice, or Where is there qualified physi
clan who will not welcome this enactment
as he would the flowers in May.
Judge Paul, of the United States Court
for the Western District of Virginia, has
removed VIM. B. Lurty, Clerk of the Court
at Harrisonburg. Mr.. c. Douglass Gray
was appointed to fill the vacancy. Mr..
Gray has appointed Abner X. Fletcher his
deputy. MI. Lurty filled the office of Clerk
very acceptably for nine years. Several
weeks ago Judge Paul requested his resig-
nation, which Mr.. Lurty declined to tender.
Gen. Loring, recently pasta in the
Egyptian SERVICE has cane, the large
ivory head of which was brought from the
Soudan by Miss Mildred Lee, daughter of
Gen. Robert E. Lee, and presented by her
to Gen. Loring. The head is richly carved
In Egyptian style, and the cane itself was
cut from piece of malacca brought from
Singapore by another friend of the pasha