Sacramento daily record-union., 1888-08-03
DR.. BRIGGS, IDEA.

There is great good sense in the fash
ion DR.. Briggs, of New York, is endeavor-
ing 70 introduce He wears in his lapel
an olive-colored button. 1t is intended to
Indicate his professional calling, not for
the solicitation of business-on the CON
trary, it is simply in the interest of hu-
maEity. Il is of the ethics of the medical
profession that its members shall not ex-
trayagantly advertise that they shall not
go about soliciting business; thx they
shall, whenever called upon IN case of
emergency, freely and at the sacrifice of
personal pleasures and comforts, minister
of their skill to the relief of human suffer
ing. 1t is this last, more than all other
requisitions of the medical code, that en-
obles the profession and puts it abreast
with the most humane efforts 1t is to be
said, also, that the instances are extremely
rare in which physician has refused to
respond to the appeal of the suffering.
The reason for DR.. Briggs olive button
springs out of the humane disposition of
his profession. lie holds that, as clergy
men are known by the cut Of their coat
and the style OF their collar, there is far
more reason for the physician being recog-
nizable by some insignia in his wearing
apparel. 1t often happens in case of acci-
dent upon the street, in the cars and upon
the ocean, that there is pressins; need for
the mInistrations of physician, and then
the cry goes up, " Is there assdoctor here p
DR.. Briggs tells of single instance of
man being sent twenty miles away to
summon physician when, unknown
70 those who dispatched the
messenger, a doctor was stopping in the
place and but few rods away from the
scene of suffering, but whom they had
long daily met. We have in this city
seen man running wildly to quite a dis
tant Office to find a physician to render aid
to one stricken down upon the street, and
yet upon his way he passed two or three
medical men, any one of whom, had the
messenger known their calling, would have
responded to the appeal, for at least tenn
Porary purposes. IN nearly all cases of
accident immediate attention upon the
Viciim is the chief essential and DELAY
means death, or at least prolonged human
agony. Ii is then, of all times, desirable
that if physician is near that he may be
recognized as such by some insignia
The idea of DIR. Briggs is a good one,
but we fear that it will be a task of great
difficulty to induce the profession TO adopt
the olive button. The physician belongs
to profession that is plated over by gen
erations of conservatism, and held fast by
one Of the severest codes of ethics known.
Obtrusive advertising is so obnoxious to
him that he will hesitate a long time, we
fear before he will adopt the suggestion OF
his holder brother, DR.. Briggs.
Eventually he will yield to it, for the
thought Of the plan is meritorious and the
proposal so genuinely in line with the hui
name sentiment that doctors will be con-
yinced in time that no advertising feature
Is embraced in the proposed fashion, that
it is, indeed, suggestion that adds to the
dignity of the profession, and that tho
wearing Of distinctive badge of some
kind by doctors and surgeons is not in an
tagonism to any of the strict rules that
hedge the profession about, and will not in
any sense involve personal dignity or pro-
iessional honor.