Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1890-02-28

the positive evidences attainable that the
party elected Assistant Physician was COM
petent to assume the responsibilities and
duties incident to the position" before
electing her. That evidence was Of the
highest character and from the best sources.
1t came from the Dean of the Faculty of
the College at which she graduated, from
the authorities of the institution in which
she is now the resident physician, from 9th
Ell physicians Of standing, male and female,
and from every source that is usually ac-
quainted with and able to speak understand
ingly of the ability of physician.
The Medical Monthly assumes too much
when it undertakes to represent ''the pro-
fession" in it's ''protest" on this subject.
So far from holding its views were the
members of the profession in this vicinity,
that, though members of the Board con-
suited many of them before the election,
not one even suggested awaiting the exam
nation by the State Board-not even the
veteran Physician of the Asylum himself,
who was cognizant of the election long be-
fore it took place, and was in conference
with the Board few minutes before i
was made But the Medical Monthly
strikes broader field than we have ever
seen struck in Virginia in the following
novel protest:
"The Board of Visitors to the Asylum is not
composed of medical practitioners. nor are we
aware that the present Board is competent to
nd Of oil; In bo
of the Profession of Virginia, as we'll as in
the interests of the afflicted citizenship of this
State, we protest against such assumption on
the part of the Board of Visitors of the West
ern Lunatic Asylum
This position is wholly inadmissable and
will not be tolerated in the State for a
moment The Board of Directors of ali
ASYLUM are men who have to consider far
more than the medical ability" of physic-
ians who are candidates before them for
positions in asylums. The administrative
ability of physicians. without which it does
not take very long to wreck the manage
ment of an Asylum, and many other things
have to be considered, and SO the State has
wisely put the supreme control OF the
| equipping of asylums into the hands OF mel
| of affairs, men of intelligence and conser-
vatism, and among them we very often
find physicians, just as the present Presi-
/ dent of the Board of Asylum Directors,
DR.. S. II. MOffett is a physician, an old
and experienced one, and a most valuable
one from his combined knowledge of the
profession and Of business affairs. The
protest. of the Monthly On the ground
| that it is not 'aWare that the present Board
is competent to judge Of medical ability
is in view of the history of asylums i'll
Virginia most astonishing and certainly
not joined in by the profession in the name
of which it speaks. The Virginia asylums
have been controlled by such Boards as this
one for nearly seventy years, and this is the
first time we have ever heard it intimated
that it is an Resumption presumption p
for them to elect physicians On the usual
evidences of ability that physicians fur
nish, for the reason that the Board is not
composed of medical practitioners, ,;
OF competent to judge of medical ability
And this new ground is in conclusion exem-
plifed
"We are not aiming these remarks at Miss
Haynes, for we do not know anything about
her. But we are crying aloud against the &C
ton of the Board of Visitors, not composed of
medical men, in not seeking the opinion, and
in not giving ear to the voice of the medical
profession of the State in the selection of
medical men OF women for medical positions
where medical ability is especially required
for the treatment of diseased conditions Of the
human system. Common sense and common
courtesy yield to the Bar the right to nominate
the important judges. Like judgment and
courtesy should be extended to the medical
profession in the selection of a purely na6tllcGt
Official
Where is the ''voice of the medical profes-
sion of the State' to be found when Board
wants its opinion at an election of physi-
clan ? In passing the State Medical EXamin-
ing Board? If that were the case the Board
would have to go without the voice, for
two-thirds of the physicians now acting in
Lunatic Asylums have never been before
the State Medical Examining Board. Two
thirds of those who apply for election by the
Boards have never been before the State
Medical Examining Board. They are gen
orally middle-aged men OF over, and the
S,a Nelical Examining Board has sprung
up since they went into practice. Who, can
the Monthly suggest, that will suit it to act
on these gentlemen who apply and who have
never seen the faces of the Examining
Board? What sort of tribunal of the
profession shall decide on their qualifica-
tions? And who is it in any event, that
shall have the right, as the Monthly seems
to think, common sense and courtesy
dictates, to nominate the ''purely medical
officials of an asylum that shall clear
laws and boards and all out of the way, and
take to themselves ''the right to nominate
the medical office-holders Of the State.
We take it that these suggestions of the
Medical Monthly, if we have understood
them correctly, were put on paper in haste
They are illogical and impracticable. The
powers OF the Board are not mixed, nor is
the responsibility divided with the medical
profession OF any other. They have and ex-
ercise full power both in the selection and
removal of physicians and other officers of
an asylum, and their appointments are
made on the best medical and other testi-
mony attainable, and that is the end of it.
A Richmond correspondent writes to his
paper the following reference to the debate
in, fho lafric1 OF, L..