The Indianapolis journal., 1890-01-21

Our own Webster definies physician as
"a person skilled in physic or the art OF
healing; one who heals diseases
1t does not say one who has a license
one who. after couple of years at college.
is sent out with diploma" but one
skilled in the healing art" Yet in 1888,
the doctors society managed to get an act
through the Legislature. calculated to
bolster up and hedge them in-the very
necessity for such protection being tacit
confession of weakness.
OF course the best friends of the law will
not deny that it was pressed with two OBJ
jects in view-one ostensible and one real.
The ostensible object was the protection of
the public the real one was the benefit of
the medical profession, or rather of the
three schools of medicine which combined
for its passage. They wished to secure for
themselves the exclusive right to practice
medicine, and to shut out of practice q
gained public favor and thereby won
large share of the profits of practice.
This fact raises the question whether
other schools are not placed under the ban,
and prevented from showing to the public
that they are not quacks and pretenders.
Medicine is not an exact science. New dis
coveries are constantly being made, aud
many of them are looked upon with dis
favor by those who are pleased to term
| themselves the regular profession. Ii the
| State suppresses these schools the public
| loses whatever truths they would be instru-
mental in bringing to light. In this. as in
| all departments of science and learning,
| large degree of freedom is Indispensa BILE to
| the greatest degree of success in ascertain
| ing unknown facts and principles.
We are unwilling to admit that the
| schools most favored by the law have been
favored with a monopoly of intelligence
| and knowledge in this wide, varied and
largely uneXplored field; and we cannot in
dorse a law which assumes this, and per-
| mits body of men nominated from these
branches of the profession to determine
who shall and who shall not practice medl-
| cine. The working of the law has not
| shown that this monopoly is public bene-
| lit. 1t has. on the contrary. developed a
spirit of persecution and intolerance un-
worthy of great State, whose name has
hitherto been a synonym for progress and
liberality. Men are charged. not with fail
ing to do what they by advertisement
claim that they can do. but with advertis-
| ing their ability to cure certain diseases.
| Many of the prOsecutionshave been against
persons who used pure herb remedies.
| whose powers of harm are therefore ex-
tremely limited, while regular physicians
have been allowed to dose the sick with
nauseous and harmful drugs with i'm
| puDiJy. Inc Olu pTluciple tudt Int
accused should be tried by jury of peers
is abr0gated. and the right of good men
and women to pursue their calling is made
subject to the will of their enemies, and
those enemies the btterest and most preju-
diced The height of absurdity has been
reached. however, in the attempted prose-
cutlOn of the Chinese physician. who has
never left his Office to visit the sick, but
simply announced through the daily papers
that he had prepared Chinese herb and
vegetable remedies for the cure of various
diseases, which he would sell for a small
sum. Laws that are ostensibly rushed
through for the protection of the dear peO.
pie, and prevent men and women of mature
sense and Judgment from buying and using
natural remedies that experience has
demonstrated will cure disease and relieve
suffering. without entalling the lingering
and Oftentimes dangerous. after effects Ol
mineral and poisonous drugs. If Gun Wa
this Chinese bOtanist. has healing remedies
and the people want to buy and use them
it looks like an abrOgation of per
sOnal liberty, as we'll as move
prompted by not altogether unselish mo
tives. for a few disgruntled doctors who's,
patients are leaving them, to ask ''protec
ton" from the State-it would almost lea(
one to believe that, as the Chinese physi
elan claims the practice of medicine is oil
infant industry" in America.
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