The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-03-02

l1enced nurses and nome doctors OF the
Drummer school, because they are
utterly unable to diagnose and treat
the cause of the dropsy?
How many outside OF physicians edu-
Gated for the purpose. can tell the In
siduous approach of Bright's Disease,
and by proper advice and remedies
prolong life perhaps for years? How
many of the experienced parties Drum
mer speaks of, can diagnose obscure
disease by an analysis of the urine?
some very serious diseases can be re-
cognized in no other way. Will his sta
tistics tell us how many occupants of
our cemeteries might be living today,
could their diseases have been properly
diagnosed by competent physicians, 2A.d
the proper remedies applied?
And it is an unfortunate circum-
stance that while we have territorial
statistics for most everything else,
medical statistics of the death rate and
| its causes have no place therein.
Drummer should know if he knows
lanything of medical matters, that NAL
practice is not confined to the admins
tration of drugs. nor to the distruc-
ton of children in utero, but that all
wrong, unscientific and improper treat
ment come under that head, and that
lit is against incompetents who put an
NJ. D. on their shingles to which they
have no right, and claim a knowledge
of medicine that, practically they know
| little about, that the medical law was
enacted. I could cite many cases to
show not only the benefit, but the
necessity of such a law, but will only
describe two, which will serve to Illus
| trate the pain and misery that may be
caused and injured by patients
through the want of knowledge or
skill, or both, of so-calied doctors, both
professionally and otherwise
e. R. a resident of Beaver county
suffered for thirteen years with irrita-
| ton of the bladder, and for several
years was confined to his bed he was
treated at different times by the best
home talent, and of late years by men
claiming medicine as their profession.
! Utterly discouraged, and almost dead,
l was consulted by a brother of the
patient 1 diagnosed calculus in the
bladder, and advised removal to st.
Mary's hospital in Salt Lake city.
There a stone was removed measuring
| three (9) inches by two (2) in it's long
and short diameter. In all that time,
! none had even intimated that the in
| flamation might be caused by calculi,
nor had any made use of the sound, to
see if such was the case. In two
months after the operation the patient
was a sound man.
The other case j. w. a resident of
| Iron county, consulted me for severe
pain in the back, made diagnosis of
abSesS of the liver and advised pune
ture, he sought other advice, however,
was operated upon by an incompetent
person, and as a result he had a
foetid running sore for a year and a
| half which nearly terminated his life.
Discouraged and humilitated he again
consulted me, and upon eXaminat ton
found deep and putrid cavity, with
two of his ribs partly decayed. The
case was above my skill in surgery, so
| [ advised and accompanied him to st.
Mary's hospital, the ribs and diseased
tissue was dissected away, and the
patient made a good recovery.
| In both of these cases, as in many
others, the patients thought they were
receiving the best of treatment, when
| in reality, they were the victims of
malpractice by incompetent practi-
TONERS. If these cases seem exager-
ated, let the health committee or our
| Legislature, visit the Deseret, ST.
Marks and st. Mary's hospitals, of Salt
Lake city, and they will find the his
tories of hundreds of such cases. For
Years Utah has been the dumping
ground for chaplatus and quacks, and
the people have been imposed upon,
simply because there has been no such
mers statement that doctors disagree
and that one doctor frequently con-
dennis the treatment of another, is
perhaps correct and true of the ex-
perienced parties he tells about, and
while able physicians of high scientific
lattainments and large experience, will
certainly disagree with incompetents
no matter how many affixes they may
put to their names, no skilful and con-
lscientious physician, ever belittles or
condemns brother practitioner, no
matter what school he may belong to-
But no two quacks were ever known to
agree with each otherd except in their
desire and effort to defeat any law
made to protect the public, and punish
malpractice
Our present medical law is very
liberal. and neither upholds nor con-
dennis any school of practice, but re-
quires that any person advertising
| themselves as physicians and surgeons
shall, by examination, or graduation
from first class medical colleges, prove
that they are at least reasonably COM
lpetent to perform the duties of such
AS to the wisdom of the law our leg.
lislators have before them the ex.
lperience of all civilized countries, as
well as the other states of the Union
all of which have very stringent medi-
cal and pharmacy laws to protect the
community. Many of our people sigr
these petitions for repeal because they
do not fully understand the benefits OF
such a law, and many are opposed tc
it on much the same ground that they
are opposed to vaccination; but both
are of vital Importance, and should be-
on our statute books.
GEORGE H. FENNEMORE,
Beaver CITY Feb %