The Washington times., 1894-12-20

any one organization. He predicted that il
the Commissioners returned the bill TO Con-
gress without amendme. [ it would be killed
there. He thought it well to have IFS defects
expunged before it gets back TO the law
makers. .'''l'e f's-''
DIR. Bland criticised both the allopathic and
homeopathic schools indiscriminately. He
quoted the law conTerring upon the eclectic
society the same rights, and emitting 1t TO
the same degree of respect guaranteed to
others. and demanded equal consideration in
the bill.
Health Officer Woodward fled a report
upon the subject. in which he recited the
several acts OF Congress in force in the Dis
trict. spoke of previous efforts to agree upon
bill that would be satisfactory to the sew
eral schools of medicine and said:
IAN examination of the first section of the
bill presented shows that the board OF exam
ers is TO be selected from list submitted by a
majority of the Medical Society of the District
OF Columbia. To the non-medical public this
will hardly appear just in view of the Hcme-
opathic and Eclectic Societies having been
chartered by Congress and endowed with
practically the same rights as the Medical
Society. 1t is in maintaining Il single stand
ard and at the same time the adjusting of the
differences between these societies that
THE GREATEST DIFFICULTY ARISES.
1.-The plan in vogue in different States may
be broadly classified as those having mixed
boards of examiners and those having sep
arate boards.
Under the mixed board system there is
but one board OF examiners and that is COM
posed of representatives of each medical So
ciety. Candidates are examined by the en-
tire board upon subjects upon which all
physicians agree, as anatomy, chemistry
obstetrics. ETC., and hy the representatives of
the society to whose belief the candidate ad-
heres. upon those branches upon which that
society holds peculiar views as therapeutics.
Such plan is in very successful operation in
New Jersey and other States.
1.-The question in the District was. however,
upon the basis OF representation of the diff
ferent societies. An effort was made to reach
an agreement, but the smaller societies de-
manded an equal representation with the
larger, and no conclusion was reached.
Under the separate board system each
society or so-called school has its own board
of medical examiners, and their work is un-
der direction of a board of control variously
made up. Each examining board selects
questions to be asked and submits them to
the board of control which then determines
which shall be used in the examination, and
later reviews the marking ii necessary. The
questions selected by the board of control
must be the same for all schools except in
h"toiit Hicuica anu .not "poti.iOo anu iHo
practice of medicine. The New York and
Pennsylvania laws are
TYPES OF THIS CLASS.
"Of the two plans the former seems better
adapted here on account of its simplicity and
the small area and comparatively small popu-
la ion of the District. The other plan, while
more cumbersome. would. I believe, prove
equally effective. That law is TO be preferred
upon which the greater number of physicians
agree"
The Commissioners had no time yesterday
for the consideration OF the suggestions made,
nor of the bill, having an engagement at the
Capitol which lasted until O'Clock.
The opinion was expressed by prominent
practitioner last evening that the bill would
not pass Congress. He does not believe the
differences can be adjusted.