The San Francisco call., 1899-07-01
THE BOARD Of HEALTH.

~ law and divinity in its dignity; and young men
of culture desrous OF filling an honorable
place in the world, choose between the three accord
ing to their taste and the promptings OF inclination
There are not wanting examples Of gentlemen who have
had high standing in two OF these professions Dr
Taylor of this city has the highest training IN both
law and medicine, and is scholar OF repute and
Fcitizen to whomthe city turns always with confidence
In Oakland the senior. DR.. Wythe had high reputa
ton in the pulpit and one OF peculiar strength as
physician and specialist, in microscopy.
Medicine is "a profession. that especially develops
the geteraly qaiity because its possession is alb
soItey requisite ina who enters families at mo-
1nents OF the. highest apprehension, and who OF ne
cessity must have confidential knowledge OF the most
secret concerns OF life This character in the physi-
can.is so we'll understood to be necessary that the law
backs it up by locking his lips upon those personal
facts which he learns in the practice OF his profession
Medical ethics iSa SYSTEM ffong growth, intended
to foster and preserve good character in the physi-
clan and keep the body OF the profession unspotted
Every man who takes the oath OF Aesculapius binds
his conscience to the upholding of ethics and his con-
duet to tle:path in which gentlemen must walk
In every city in the United States the physicians are
regaded guild o gentlemen and the respect paid
them is of:the first rank. This long developed and
elltahtained element OF high personal character in
the profession has impressed gentle and simple alike
When we had frontiers, and when mining camps and
Ecowboy= rendezvous were as rough and reckless and
wild as unrestraiiled man can make them the phys-
clan was always safe to go and come, day night
Men who would not hesitate to rob or kill another
would make up the escort OF the doctor and defend
him with their lives if need:were 1t is incumbent on
every doctor of medicine to do everything to main
tain and Justify this popular estimate OF his profession
and do nothing arni$h it. In these latter days new
honors are being won by physic: The secrets OF ma
ture locked up in the human body are being one by
one revealed and the final cause of many ills that end
lie untimey is being exposed; and removed
Now is the wrong time, il, there could ever be a
right time for any physician to desert his professional
ethics and character It is therefore, peculiarly pain
iul, only to honorable physicians but to thought
ful aymen to see the members of.this learned. dig
nifed and honorable profession who have been ap-
pointed to the Board of Health in this city. compelled
to obey the dictates OF party boss and make admin
istratve appointments in their office that would de
stroy the good name of a tripe factory.
That they submitted unwillingy is evident. but that
they submitted at all is deporable. That they feel
painfully their position is greater compliment to
their conscience than to their courage 1t said that
they had to accept their office subject the mortgage
OF the boss, and that had they not done so others
would. We dislike to believe this Every in the
profession should stand united in the pledge not to
accept place to which the profession may aspire
unless it may be had and held under conditions which
conform to the code of ethics and permit the main
enance unsulled OF the character and which
are the pride OF the good physician If this esprit de
corps were kept up the politicians and the bosses
would be powerless. To appoint the unspeakable
Dennery and the other unthnkable creatures forced
upon them, to places where honorable men must meet
them and associate with them is sad degradation Of
the medical character.
The members OF the board are men Of honor and
OF deserved standing Not one OF them if left the
promptings OF his own knowledge OF the fitness OF
things would have obeyed the boss's orders in max
ing their appointments A gentleman deserves to as
sociate with his own kind, and he wrongs himself
greatly if he freely seek such official associations as
that OF Dennery and the other selections OF the boss
who reek with the feculence of the political gutter
The homes into which physicians enter, when the
emergency Of illness and the sorrows of the sick room
close them to all Others will shrink from even this
secondary contact with the uncleanness of crooked
politics
II the wives and mothers whom the members of
the Board Of Health in their daily visits ask why
they made these appointments, can they answer that
merit controlled or dare they answer that Dennery
and his kind are their friends and associates whom
they felt bound to favor What answer can they make
cutcheOn unstained?
We Join all rght-thinking people in deploring that
which these members of a refined profession have
been compelled to do. and the shame and pity OF it
should confirm all honest in their hatred OF boss
politics that shoves filth into clean places with no
more conscience than dredger