The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-01-29
NO coDDL1NG OF osTEoPATHY.

The bill now before the legislature
 which grants particular favors to osteo-
 paths, or persons who claim to cure dis
 eases by manipulation of the bones
 ought never to be passed. Its most
 clearly objectionable provision is thai which requires the board of regents of
 the state university to grant, without
 examination, a license to practice os- teopathy to any person now actually
 engaged in that practice in this state
 who is reputable graduate of regu- larly conducted school of osteopathy, on 4 recommendation of the state board of
 osteopathc examiners created by the
 bill. How is that board of examiners to
 be constituted? By appointment of the
 regents, but exclusively from persons 1 nominated by the New York Osteopath-
 ic society. The matter of qualifying for | a license would, therefore, be wholly in
 the hands of the osteopaths themselves,
 so far as present practitioners are con
 cerned, the regents being merely an ln-
 strument for carrying out their Wlshes 1 under compulsion. In respect to per- sons desiring to become practitioners or
 osteopathy hereafter the provisions or l the bill are somewhat more eXactlng,
 but in their cases again the Osteopathlc society, through the examiners appoint
 ed on it's nomination, would virtually
 control the situation.
 The demands thus made are utterly opposed to the wise regulations laborl- ously established by which persons af- ficted with disease are more or less eff
 ficientIy protected against ignorance and fraud. The standard of knowledge and character eXacted of those who de- sire to practice the healing art has been slowly raised in this state, and we hope it is destined to be higher in the future than it is now Any effort to degrade it. or any scheme of which the manifest tendency is to degrade it, should be promptly and firmly brought to naught, There is no conceivable reason why os- teopaths should receive special consld- eration. They make large claims, which some of their patients, we be- lieve, are ready to grant; but if there is truth in the theories they proclaim, they should themselves recognize the importance of justifying their faith by willing submission to the conditions inn posed on other applicants for authority to undertake the cure of disease. Their treatment of a patient may benefit him, as the usual forms of massage might; furthermore, strictly for the purpose or the argument, there would be no obJec- tion to admitting that they are capable of doing all that they profess to do. But that would not settle the case in their favor or diminish in the slightest degree the indispensable necessity of keeping up the bars against dishonesty and incompetence.
 This bill does not merely aim to pro- mote the convenience of those who like to have their bones twisted or that of their chosen healers. It provides that licensed osteopaths shall have all the rights and privileges and be subject to the rules and regulations that govern other physicians or medical practition- CTS in the making and filing of certifi- cat es of births and deaths, in the con- trol of contagious diseases. and other matters pertaining to public health, though they shall not be authorized to pre- scribe drugs for internal use or to perform major surgery" which, as be- ing contrary to their principles, they, of course, would have no wish to do. To confer upon them the privileges which they are eager to obtain by short and easy process would be grossly inconsis- tent with the policy by which this state seeks to protect human welfare. It | would be demoralizing, dangerous and ble.--New York Tribune.