The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1898-01-29
A MODERN INQUISITION.

Ever since the days of John Hancock
and samuel Adams, Massachusetts has
assumed 10 be In tho van of the various
states and sections in progress, freedom
and liberation. But eternal vigilance
Is tue price of continued liberty, for new
and subtle forms OF tyranny are ever
seeking installment.
A bill has been formulated which the
general court Is to be asked to pass into
a law, making 1t a crime to heal disease,
unless IL be done through one limited le-
gal monopoly. The penalty for this ter
rible crime Of healing is to be "a fine OF
not less than 800 nor more than $500 for
each offence or by imprisonment In jail
for three months, or BOTH Thus, for a
good deed, educated Christian men and
sanity women are to be thrown into
sumption is, that here In Massachusetts,
people have no right 10 choose their own
method OF relief or that they are so ig-
norant that the state must Go IL for them.
The medical profession has In its ranks
hundreds OF noble, progressive ana toler-
ant men, who cannot in any way be held
responsible for such an attempted imposi-
tion of mental ana moral slavery as the
state board proposes. and it is believed
that many OF them will disavow oil con-
nection with and endorsement OF 1t. 1t
involves no question between therapeutic
systems, but ID "a menace To The most sa-
cred and fundamental principles Of per-
sonal liberty. Regarding malpractice and
the assumption Of medical titles, there is
already ample protection against ell false
pretence.
Any craft that Is so endangered by the
progress Of Truth thar ii must coerce the
pubic, evidently is not willing to rest
upon its own merits for patronage. One
religious sect might as well ask the state
to enforce its creed. and to cast into
prison all VINO did not avow 1t, % for one
medical system TO ssk for legislation to
force unwilling people To support it ex-
olusively. The sDirit Of sCca law would
"blue laws" and the whipping of Quak-
ers.
Materia medica has never claimed 10
be an exact science. 1t lacks the exact
elements Of mechanical surgery, and is
admittedly Experimental and empirical.
and constantly shifting its methods and
conclusions The writer of this article
is only an Independent seeker Of the truth.
DE is not a practitioner, and therefore has
no professional or pecuniary interest in
this matter, but as an application OF tie
higher phil, sophy has without tho
life. he has near and real sense of wnat
should he every ones privilege lie has
many friends in the ineo ical profession
whom he highly esteems and under GER
tain conditions he would employ some OF
them, but he believes that every one of
them would have the relation between
physician and patient voluntary, rather
than forced by the state, with the prison
as AN alternative.
The true province Of legislation is to
protect the liberty Of the people rather
than to take IL away. While the writer
is net Christian Scientist. in the spe-
clne sense OF that term. he believes that
the state has no more right to interfere
wish the religious faiCh uf that denomina-
tion than to enter their homes and con-
tiscate tneir goods.
But Shero is a scientific as we'll as a re-
llgious aspect to this question. psychoog-
lea and metaphysical laws are exact, and
are available and applicable in their own
place and scope 10 apptoach human ills
from the inner, subtle and real causatiye
side is something which the average med
ical practitioner knows little about How
could be- when he has given the subject
no systematic study?
Any iair-mindei person must see at
glance that unless different systems and
philofophios ara allowed to stand upon
merit alone. all evolutionary progress
must cease. The very principles of con-
stltrtionui democracy rresuppose that
oitizens are 1ot imbeciies but they ara
t. have free individual hoice in all
those deeper things which pertain To
their religious, ethical. social and physi-
cal welfare.
Can the law force any man to think ex-
aotly in uhe same ruts as his Deighbor,
and imprison him II he docs notf Mil
lions havo poured out their blood on pat
tlefields or bsen burned at the stake, on
issues far less vital ana sacred than the
one In question.
There Is no purpose in this commuui-
cation to condemn one system or extol
another, for the principles outlined are
back of all systems. 1t may safely be as
sumed that the medical profession in
general III not sustain the state board
In the extreme and unconstitutional
course which they propose. Tho latter.
having hnd a taste Of rule in the limited
monopoly OF the past, now wish TO ad-
vance and make 10 unlimited.
Under the inquisition Of Torqusmada
in the fifteenth century, the bodies Of
men were consrientiously tortured for
the laudsbIe purDose Of saving their
souls 1t Is now proposed to torture
their souls (whlth are the real men) In