The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-02-02
Weather Forecast.
a BILL TO BE LOOKED AFTER.


IT would be well to look sharply after
Assembly bill 511. proposing to amend
the law relative to the practice Of medi-
cine, the original law having been
passed in 1875 and amended in 1878.
The bill has several apparently objec-
tionable features.
One OF these is the condemnation OF
NIL persons who without a license
from one of the schools of medi-
cine named in the Act who
shall prescribe, direct, recommend,
advise, supply, give, or sell for the use
of any person any drug or medicine, or
other application for the treatment,
cure. or relief Of any bodily injury,
fnfirmity, or disease.
1t win be apparent that under such a
law it would be criminal on the part of
an optician, for instance, to make for,
Sell to, or give one glasses intended to
remedy defective eyesight, which is Of
course bodily inarmity." Obviously
this would be unjust to a large body
of highly skilled men who are gradu-
ated from schools which do not profess
to be schools of medicine, but are
schools of high skill and make spe-
cialty Of the science Of adjusting arti-
hcial lenses to the aid and correction
of the defective eyesight.
1t would, without the advice and pre-
scription Of a physician of one of the
schools of medicine named in the law
as it stands. prevent the maker Of arti-
fetal limbs from selling to any one a
device to supply the loss Of a leg, arm
or hand. And so on the prohibition
would stretch to most dangerous
lengths. even if the law as it is does
not already extend to these extreme
restrictions-but we take the new Act
as 1t reads.
The bill would prevent any person an
nouncing or prescribing means Of re-
lief by any drug. medicine or applica-
tion by advertisement under the title
of doctor, Professor, NJ. D. or NJ. B.,
or any other title tending to imply or
designate him as a practitioner of med
acine, in any Of its branches. and who,
or without the use Of such titles, shall
prescribe, direct, recommend. advise,
supply, give or sell for the use Of any
person or persons any drug or med
dcfne, or other application for the treat
'ment, cure, or relief of any bodily in
jury. infirmity, or disease"
Thus the advertising or announcement
of appliances and remedies for relief
or correction of bodily infirmity is as
sailed Under the bill an optician,
dealer in surgical appliances, seller
of the simplest instruments or devices
for alienation Of human suffering, or
the betterment OF the being where there
are bodily defects, as hernia, where
counter irritation, simple remedies.
such as troches, lozenges, etc.
The business Of the druggist will by
this Act be seriously affected, since he
deals in a multitude Of things outside
of patent medicines and cure ais, which
are Of common use among the people.
Indeed, it may be construed to prohibit
one purchasing, selling, or giving away
so simple q medicine as seidlitz
powder, or a bottle of mineral water
as laxative or solvent. precisely as it
would inhibit the advertising Of such
goods.
We repeat that there is a large class
of people legitimately engaged in BUSH
ness of a reputable and unobjectionable
order who should look alive about this
bill. It is so restrictive in its limita-
tions that only the Medical Society of
California, the homeopathic and &C.
lectic schools can issue certificates per-
missive under the law.
The statutes as they stand contain the
same limitations, yet we notice that
the new method Of treatment Of nerve
centers and known as osteopathy is
announced, advertised, practiced, and
by very considerable number of peo-
Die awaited of for relief. We assume
that under the law as it stands this
practice Is unlawful, but it appears to
be gaining ground, and we hear of no
prosecutions of osteopathic doctors. nor
is there any action prosecuted against
their schools and colleges. which are
becoming numerous.
In examining several hundred inter-
DOR exchanges, the Record Union has
been struck by the transformation with
which many of them are supplied con-
corning measures before the Legisla-
ture 1t is safe to say that fully half
the bills debated by our contemporar-
les are by them misunderstood or