Evening star., 1898-08-25
QUESTION AT ISSUE
Conflict Between Health Office and
Freedmen's Hospital.
RIGHT TO Sign DEATH CERTIFICATES
Correspondence Between Commits
sioners and interior Department.
LEGAL POINTS INVOLVED

Death certificates and burial permits are
the subject of correspondence at present
between the surgeOn-in-chief of Freedmens
Hospital. the acting secretary of the in
terror the health Office and the District
Commissioners. The attorney for the Dis
trict viii doubtless be called upo'. to d.
pose of the matter finally.
1t seems tkat death certificates received
at the health Office and signed by DR..
Austin NJ Curtis, who succeeded DR.. ID. S.
Williams at Freedmen's Hospital, have not
been honored, and burial permits have been
refused on the ground that DIR. Curtis is
not registered physician in the District.
The Commissioners are in receipt of a let
ter from Mr.. Thomas Ryan, acting secre-
tary of the interior, inclosing letter of
complaint to that department from DR..
Curtis. The latter declares that as sur
geon-in-chief of Freedmen's Hospital he
has exercised that authority by signing the
death certificates of persons deceased in
that institution. The first assistant sur
seon, ne says, had signed them prior to
August II, but in his absence DR.. Curtis
exercised his prerogatiye.
r II was told over the telephone from the
health Office" he continues, that death
certificates signed by me would not be hon
cred by the health office, claiming that
could not practice medicine in the District
of Columbia until L pass a medical exam
ination and had qualified for registration
According TO an act to regulate the prac-
tice OF medicine and surgery in the District
O.. Columbia, approved June 3, 1856, under
section l. OF said act, as surgeon-in- n-chief
of a government hospital, conclude have
the right to treat all patients and sign
death certificates in this institution. Today
august 22) the health officer absolutely re-
fused to honor death certificate, delaying
a funeral and requiring the remains to be
Il I'd ifslfa hI- he
coroner, telling the people that l have no
right to sign certificates of death. My po-
sition is very embarrassing. l cannot dis
pose of the dead. 1t is therefore very
urgent that my position be defined at once.
DIR. Woodward's Letter.
DR.. Curtis inclosed to the Secretary of the
Interior d copy of letter from DR.. Wood
ward, the District health officer, in which
he informs the hospital surgeon that
he has directed that no moro bod
les be removed from the institution
by order of the health office except
upon the presentation there of such death
certificate as is required by law. The au-
thority which has heretofore been given
DR.. Curtis of issuing transfer permits in
the name of the health department is re-
yoked by the same letter.
In transmitting the communications TO
the District Commissioners Acting Secre-
tary Ryan says:
DIR. Austin VI. Curtis of Illinois was COM
missioned as surgeon-in-chief of Freedmen 5
Hospital and Asylum March S. 1905 upon
certitication by the civil service commits
sion and after an examination under the
supervision of that body to determine his
qualifications as physician. 1 have, there
fore, 10 request that directions be given
the health officer of this District to honor
all death certificates signed by DR.. Curtis
as surgeon-in-chief of Freedmen's Hospital
and Asylum
Makes n Statement.
The Commissioners referred the matter
to DIR. Woodward, who yesterday wrote the
following statement in regard to the ma
ter:
The request that the health officer be
directed to honor all death certificates
signed by DR.. a. NJ. Curtis as surgeon-in-
chleI OF Freedmen'S Hospital is based upon
letter from the surgeon-in-chief claiming
as 'prerogative the right to sign death
certificates, and entering complaint because
thlS department has declined to recognize
such certificates.
Certainly during the past four years and.
10 the BEST of my knowledge, during the
past tWenty-rour years, it has been Gus
toAdry 10 Issue burial permits only upon
death certificates issued by physicians rae
lstered az the health department, as re-
quired by law, or by the coroner Until
recehuy' however, this practice had not
Deeh sustained by any statutory REQUIRE
Hent nor even by any express regulation
oI tne board of health nor of its successor
me health department; but on January %
1855, by the passage of an act for the reg
uIatIon OF cemeteries and the disnosaI 81
oedu boules IN the District of Columbia il
was enacted: II
-. permits for the removal, inter
merit, disposal to be issued upon the nre-
sshtdIDn or proper death certificate
SlSIed Dy a physician registered at the
nt neaLth department of said District, who has
attended the deceased during his or her
last illness, or by the coroner, W
And the health department was thereby
uTPFlVed or whatever discretion, if any.
VIC nElch II might otherwise have had. Upon
t1e recent presentation of death Certificates
signed by DIR. A. NJ. Curtis. A physician
not registered at the health Department
oeflai permits were, therefore. refused.
Point Not Disputed.
nile the fact that DR.. Curtis is not
registered is, 1 believe, not questioned. be
seems 10 claim the right to sign death
oerthcates as prerogative of his Office. 7
ism unable to discover any foundation
wv atsoever for such a claim. and cannot
therefore. discuss it's merits further than
:. say that: In my Judgment. no such pre-
rosauVe exists or ever has existed
i regret that Dr. Curtis has broue1t
INTO TINS case the question as to his rights
IN thls District, under the act to regulate
eIe PIdCtce OF medicine, to license physi-
clsns and surgeons, etc, approved blne 2
lcsp, as IL seems apparent upon the face
OF tnat act not only that Dr. Curtis re
hO Hshts under IL, but even that his -
eht duties are in direct vioIatie~ gre
terms, but as it was under tE>ot. - .. It's
question of his right 81 ra,,,a,a. aot 'nat the
I-eaI'h h department b. to he Se,ar,oi,, =.
have madd -avoidabie that he should
I1~.-~,1-ss. lis claim under 1t. This ACT
fv'ISS- Tor the issue of license to prac
s medicine in the District of Columbia
oy a board of medical supervisors. and for
the registration of such licenses at the
health department
Dr curtis claims no license but seeks
70 establish his rights to practice medicine
In the District Of Columbia under the
tWeIlth section of this act because il ex
enpts from the operation of the law COM
Hlssloned surgeons of the United States
srHy. navy and marine hospital service.
Dut under the established course of rca
solns IN such cases. the fact that Con-
sIess mas expressly exempted certain ern
Rioyes OF the United States government
ATCm the operations of the provisions az
ttls act leads indisputsbly to the conclu
sions that employees of the United States
seherally are subject to its reouIrernents
0therWlse no such exception would have
Deeh necessary l am not familiar wiz
me rules OF the civil service Commission
ana or the Interior Department bearina
Upon 1ne case, but the declarations of Con-
sFeSs are so piGin that such rao,,Iat;oaz