The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-03-27

The Massachusetts Legislature. officially
designated as the General Court can eiva
extended hearings on bills before commit
tees because 1T is in session half of each
year. The hearing is an essential feature
or Massachusetts legislation. Recently the
joint committee on the public health gave
hearings upon a bill designed to prohibit
the practice of mental healing and all heal
ing by those who practice any branch of
medicine without certificate from state
medical board Of registration Doubtless
the Dill as similar to those which are laws
In several States. In Massachusetts the
bill was designed to bring to grief the mind
curers, who would not submit to the ex-
animation of such a board
Very naturally all claiming to be curers.
mental or otherwise who are outside the
recognized medical profession opposed the
bill at the hearings Of the committee The
opposition would not have been effectual
had not Professor Janess-~of~ Harvard, a
doctor Of nedicine himself and one of the
most distinguished psychologists, appeared
among the opponents. He did rot oppose
the measure in the name of liberty, since
he recognized the propriety of regulation in
the interest Of health, but he protested in
the name Of science itself, which was the
plea Of those who urged its enactment. The
State, he told the committee is not a med
ical body, and therefore could. take no side
in a medical controversy. All that the
Legislature could do was to ascertain the
facts. The facts are, the professor insisted,
that in mental healing personality, impress
sion and intuition often seem to accom-
plish more than the technical learning of
the regular practitioner. Thousands of men
as intelligent and as conscientious as the
regular physician, and their patrons, he
sadd believe in mind cure and are benefited
by it. In view of these facts, Professor
James asked:
Do you feel called on, do you dare, to
thrust the coarse machinery of criminal law
into these vital mysteries, into these per
these infinitely subtle operations of nature,
and enact that a whole department of medi-
cal investigation (for such it is), together
der which it fiourishess must. cease to be?
I venture to say that you dare not, gentle
commonwealth into. obstacles to the
QUESTION of truth. You are not to ask your
selves whether these mind curerS do really
achieve the successes that are claimed. 1t
Is enough for you as legislators to ascertain
that a large number of our citizens, persons
as intelligent and we'll educated as your
selves or /, persons whose number seems
daily to increase, are convinced that they do
achieve them. Here is a purely medical
question, in which our general court, not
being a well-spring and source of medical
virtue, must remain strictly neutral under
penalty of making the confusion worse
The argument of Professor James so In
f1uenced the committee that it unanimously
voted to report against the bill The New
York Assembly, where similar bill is pend
ing, has shown a disposition to follow the
example of Massachusetts. A bill of the
same purport was enacted by the Kentucky
Legislature. The bill was so vigorously
opposed by those practicing what is known
as osteopathy that the Governor would not
sign it until the medical board which caused
it to be passed agreed that certificates
should be given to- those practic1ng that
theory of cure who should pass the required
examination in physiology and anatomy.