Wichita eagle., 1889-01-15
MEDICAL LEGISLATION.
To the Editor of the EAGLE.

To the Editor Of the EAGLE
VIII you give me space in your vaiua
BILE paper to express a few errati
thoughts, and introduce few rambling
comments in reference to one of tn
questions now being pressed upon tn
attention of our Topeka legislators; tn
question of medical legislation?
Annually or biannually, with eacl
recurring convening of the states legis
latures, comes again the vexed question
of medical legislation: and since it
now once more presented to our law
makers it is proper for US to conside
the question for few moments In it
various bearings.
First. What is the ostensible design o
these efforts for medical laws:
Second. What the real design?
Third. Whence emanate these efforts
Fourth. What the effects?
The ostensible design of these effort
is "to protect the minimizing and unin
formed public from being preyed upol
by inscriptions quacks who ad
vertise their skill and ability, and rol
their patrons of not only money but O
health and even life ITSELF
This is quite well exemplifed in an ad
dress by the president of state board o
examiners directed to the public. HI
said: 1.-THE law, under which the medi
cal examining board is called to organize
was passed for your protection and no
ours. Good physicians need no laws t.
protect them; their merit is sufficient
Quacks, charlatans and irregular practi
TONERS may deprive us of some money
but they deprive you of your loved ones
and of your lives. We can stand the
loss if you can. OU
profession need no protection and ash
none. But we will heartily cooperate
with you in framing, passing and exc
cutting such laws as will drive from oul
midst quackery or yellow fever; charla
tanry or cholera; pretenders OF any
other plague
This is a sample of their manner of pre-
| senting their subject and sounds well
enough to an unthinking person, but il
| lacks one essential element, and that is
the element of truth. The very first SEN
tence is pointed falsehood. Those laws
are not gotten up for the protection OF
the people, but for the protection of the
members of that noble @ profession, "
the doctors
Doctors are much like other men.
They have weakness for the good
| things of life, and a longing for the
filthy lucre" that alone secures them.
Many claim that they work for the good
of humanity and the glory of the profes-
sion, but they are just as careful TO enter
their charges on their day books and to
present their bills at the end of the
month as the grocer or the butcher or
their less philanthropic professional
brethren The evidence of the human
instinct in the average NJ. d. is displayed
in the avidity with which he seizes a
paying position, and the tenacity with
which he is prone to hold on to it and to
keep others out.
The imam" crops out again when he
finds that while he is posing in dignified
self-importance waiting for something
to turn UP" and give him prestige and
therefore business. his more enterprising
neighbor has gone to the printing office
and said publicly through the press that
he is here, is ready for business and that
he can cure certain specified maladies,
and as proof of his sincerity offers GER
tain guarantees of his success or certain
forfeitures i'll case of failure. His HUI
mainly comes to the surface here ] say
and he straightway seeks redress for his
offended dignity, and plethora for his
for his depleted purse In legislative en-
actments by which he hopes to drive the
successful competitor, whom he stigma
ties as IAN advertising qUack" out and
thereby secure his patronage.
Again we find that he displays the
fact that he is human from the eager
ness with which he seeks to form a trust
"a kind of medical trust-so TO speak
but just as much and as surely a trust
as Mr.. Havermyer tried to secure on
sugar.
1t is nonsense and folly for us to claim
that we work for the dear people,
alone, or for the elevation of the noble
profession" only. We work for solid
cash and as much as possible of it, and
the people know it as well as we do.
Furthermore, the profession is being
pushed to the wall. We have colleges
all over our land that are turning out
thousands of doctors, where hundreds
are needed, and this is bringing want
and perjury to large per cent of them
and they therefore cast about for rem
edy. The remedy they seek and desire
is medical enactment.
Every move for the protection of ''the
people against quackery originates
among the doctors: and it is a notorious
foot tl,at ~ S,Ct I've -
backed up and championed by them
from first to last. And still further, it
is equally notorious that nine-tenths of
these efforts originate among doctors of
the old school, or regulars.
So far from being co-operators they
are originators, champions, lobbyists,
fathers and beneficiaries of all such
and laws.
We are as much in favor of com
potency in the medical profession as any
one but there is a law not statutory, and
a tribunal not framed by legislators be-
fore which we must all appear and that
is the judgment of the populace. IF we
are competent we are known and patron
lied, whether regular, eclectic, homoe-
path, physiomedia, OF what-not. If in
and unsuccessful we will be
retired TO the status of ''lnocceouS desue-
tude" in spite of all the laws that can be
formu ated.
The bill now before the legislature
places the control of medical practice in
the hands of a board of seven physicians,
four of these are regulars, two hom9-
paths and one eclectic.
Certificates are to be given to all hold
ars of diplomas if the board so DEGREES, /
but unprofessional conduct will debar
anyone from practice and the