The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-08-17
REPLIES TO BREWER.
DR.. Roby Takes Up the Cudgel for the
Doctors

To the Editor of the State Journal:
In last Saturdays issue of your paper
L. D. Brewer goes so far out of his
way to SANDER and villify the medical
profession that l ask leave to make
reply He says:
The legislature of two years ago
passed a law making it a punishable
offense for g man to cure the collie in
his own family without the advice of a
physician qualified by law and reg
| istered. The legislature that sat last
winter passed another. cutting out the
Osteopathists and other practitioners
who do not use certain methods of prac-
tice in their profession. These laws
were introduced and advocated by the
Doctors
The first para graph in Mr. Brewers
article contains two absolute and I'M
mitigated falsehOOdS. | have read the
medical registration law Of two years
ago more O1ten than any man living,
certainly not less than a thousand
times. and probably much oftener. and
l know there is not a word or sentence
in it forbidding any man Ito cure the
collie in his own family without the
advice of a physician" That law ex-
preSsly saws:
Nothing in this act shall be constru-
ed as interfering with any religious be-
liefs in the treatment of disease: Nor
snail anything in this act apply to the
administration of domestic medicines
nor to prohibit gratuitous services"
And as to the law passed last winter
which he says cuts out the osteopath-
lists and other practitioners who do not
use certain methods of practice in their
profession" his statement is equally
false and malicious. The only law
passed last winter relating to medical
practice. was short one section law
comforting on the secretary of the board
OF registration authority to issue to APP
ralif hot
nit to practice from the time of their
application until the next regular meet
ing of the board. and there is not
word in it about cutting OUT any
body. As to the charge that. THE prac-
tice of medicine is now admitted by all
eminent physicians to be largely an ex-
pertinent" 1 challenge Mr.. Brewer to
name one single science among men that
was ever established or its laws learn
ed. except by experiment.
How did Franklin find out that cleo
/ triclty and lightning were one and the
Same thing? BY experiment, How did
Alexander Bell find out that one man
! could talk over a wire from Chicago to
New York? BY experiment. How did
Edison find out that the dead metal in
a photograph could say "Helloi' in his
own tone of voice? BY experiment.
How did MarcOni find out that MESA geS
could be sent across seas without wires?
By experiment. How did Morton find
out that ether, or Simpson that chloro-
form, would safely annul the pain of a
surgical operation? BY experiment.
How are we finding out TODAY how
many varieties of cancer and other dis
eases can be cured by the X-ray the
Finsen ray and the Radison ray? By
experiment.. And how are a hundred
thousand other things in medical ana
other sciences being found out? Only
by experiment.
Does Nj. Brewer or any one else know
I of single ready made science handed
down to the planet without experiment?
Not one.
And what business is it to Mr. Brew
er If one man asks $4,000 for removing
/ diseased tonsils while another man asks
/ but so. Is it unlawful for one man to
ask what he pleases for his skill, as well
i as for horse or an automobile? 1 have
removed tonsils for $500. Am 1 to be
! hanged or crowned for that?
/ If Mr. Brewer has great respect for
| the profession" why does he go out of
! his way to Islander it? Why does he
! trot out that silly. antediluvian, dead
! and sinking criticism of the profession
/ that doctors disagree?'' Doctors do dis
! agree and quite as honestly so as other
| men do Do lawyers. or ministers or
statesmen ever disagree? The man who
| does not disagree with somebody is
/ either a fraud or a fool. Go into our
courts and you shall see the doctors Of
/ law disagreeing like pirates. So much
! do they disagree that all questions are
formally put at ISSUE and the lawyers
take sides and strive to their utmost to
make the worse the better reason SEEM"
And 1t was long ago found that there
was such small chance of their agree
ing. that judges and juries were APP
pointed to agree for the lawyers. And
| judges and juries being but men. have
about as hard work to agree as the law
yers do. And a new proverb has sprung
up to the effect that only GOD can tell
beforehand what the verdict of a jury
/ or the decision of a court viii be So
great and interminable is the lawyers
wrangle, that we build court houses all
over the land for them to wrangIe in,
! and that not being enough, we build
state and national capitols for them to
/ assemble in and keep up what is called
n more advanced disputation.
| HEN z Y w TnDX