Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1889-02-21
Leeisla,lpe a Medical rrust.

Mention was made in the Plain Dealer last
Thursday Of bill introduced in the State
Senate for the regulation Of medical practice
in the State. An examination OF the details
of the bill reveals some curious features. II
is hardly possible such a measure can become
Law, for we cannot believe that even the
present legislature would enact such piece
of sbsurdity and bigotry.
To properly express its purpose the title of
the bill should be ''to create a medical trust"
II provides for the protection of doctors in
any county, township. city, town or incorpo-
rated village in the State by levying prohib-
itory tariff on any doctor coming from any
where else in the State or beyond it to cure
any kind of disease or infrmity, il he makes
known in any way whatever his object in so
coming. 1t creates close trust among local
doctors however inefficient, against visiting
physicians however skilled.
II is difficult for the intelligent citizen, not
doctor, to conceive the possibility of such
an extraordinary bill being offered in good
faith by n legislator, even though that legis-
lator Is himself physician and the proposed
law would therefore be in his personal inter
est. The bill is, however, printed fact. 1t
provides that every "itinerant physician"
shall pay q license of 800 n month in the
county, city or village in which he may prac-
tice or offer to practice his profession, witha
penalty of not exceeding 800 for each day he
carries on his business without license and
county Jail or workhouse imprisonment II
the fine is not paid. Furthermore, he cannot
collect compensation for medical services.
There is one important omission in this
scheme for the protection of local medicos
against competition, The license money
goes to swell local funds and the fines collect
cd 90 to the poor. To make the plan more
beneficial to the struggling Infant industry"
of local medicine the bounty system should
be combined with the protective tariff system
and a portion of the license money and fines
be given as bounty to the ''poor" doctors.
There are enough of that sort, whether the
poverty be interpreted as referring to tnan-
ces or ability.
The amusing feature is the construction
placed by the bill on the words 'itinerant
physician" In "the meaning of this section
| it is to be held that "itinerant physicians"
are all persons, whether residents of the State
or not, "who are not permanently located"
in the locality where they desire to practice,
who shall, "by writing or printing or any
other method, publicly profess to cure or
treat diseases, injuries or deformities."
| That is the nub Of the statute after all. The
visiting physician may doctor as much as he
chooses if he doesn't let the public know he
| Ib uOCLOEs II u0 put5 u CdIu IA ttO AOOol pa
per or sends out a circular or Sin any other
method" causes it to be known that he is able
to treat any special i'll that flesh is heir to he
commits the objectionable sin in medical
ethics and is tabooed by the nonadvertising
medical fraternity. As this awful punish
ment seems to have no terrors for the adver-
tising specialist he ia in addition to be brand
ed as iailbird and workhouse criminal.
| If the legislature seriously considers this
DOCTORS bill for the protection of medical
old fogyism we suggest some additional pro-
visions in the same line and which are in
strict accordance with the medical code of
ethics. These are: fine of 800 day and one
months imprisonment for any physician,
permanently located or not, who puts sign
on his door or house; $500 day and six
months imprisonment for putting swing
sign on post or tree; $500 a day and one
years imprisonment for putting "eye and
ear' or "throat diseases" after the physi-
clans name on the sign; the same penalty for
doctor allowing his name to appear in con-
nection with remarkable surgical case" or
a "triumph of surgical Skill" or mention
of ''the valuable services of our we'll known
and skillful physician, DR.. -" $50 for
every prescription SO written that it can be
easily read; 800 for every prescription of an
advertised remedy; five years in the peniten-
| tiary for the publisher of an Ohio newspaper
containing a patent medicine advertisement,
with heavy fine and imprisonment for circu-
| culating in the State any newspaper, whether
published in Ohio or elsewhere, containing a
medical advertisement of any kind whatever.
These suggestions are all in line with the
medical code of ethics and if the bill of the
senatorial doctors passes we may look for SUBJ
sequent bills embody them at no distant day.
Seriously, if the legislators are ambitious
to do for themselves what Dogberry wanted
the sexton to do for him. they could no more
surely accomplish that purpose than by pass
ing this bill to create a medical trustin every
township, city, town or incorporated vii
lage' in Ohio.-Ploin Dealer.
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