The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-02-15
THE DECISION He
THINKS A bL UNDER
Whose Memory Will Ou,Iast
the Judges Epitaph.
THE OSIE0PATHY CAST
Doctor Staff rd Holds That One Who Prac ices
the Healing Art Practices Medicine or
Surgery Within the Meaning
Of the Statute.


opinion of the Supreme Court of this
State, as written by the learned Judge,
that osteopathy has to do with neither
medicine nor surgery, see State VS.. Nc
Knight and so cannot be made amenab1c
to the laws regulating the practice of
medicine and surgery, seems to have
clarified the medical, as we'll as the
classical scholars in and out of North
Carolina. AS the osteopath discards the
laws and traditions regarding the art of
healing, so the judge seems to set aside
the accepted definitions. as to what really
constitutes the practice of medicine and
surgery
Except as Distinguishing from its al
lied branches Of the SANE profession,
surgery and obstetrics medicine means
the art and science of healing, and not
the administration of drugs and medi-
cinial preparations. For, although these
are used, and largely so, other agencies
play most important part. Dieting.
therapeutic baths, the application of
heat or cold, light, darkness electricity.
massage or rubbing and manipulation,
the exhibition of mineral or other wa
ters, travel, climate, etc. etc, all come
within the list of remedies legitimately
and extensively used in the practice of
medicine. And yet X often happens
that while exercising the highest fLnc-
tons of his art. the physician forbids
any aud all drugs. depending entirely
upon dieting and rest.
In surgery it is not always necessary
to use the knife or any instrument what
ever. Some surgical cases, as Gisloca-
tons, require only tho surgeons bands
and feet,-guided of corccc by his brain.
Others require only the exhibition of
the proper medicines, without any instru-
mentation or manipulation whatever
Some tuners, as we'll as products of in
Illumination, are thus absorbed. And, as
every surgeon knows, there are some
cases in which manipulation or massage
would be the worst thing possible for
the patient.
Now, here is your ostCOpath. who
eschews knowledge or the use of the
knowledge of anatomy and physiology.
He says his province is to find the dis
eased nerves and rub" out the disease,
He does not know motor from sensory
nerve, or the origin or distribution of
either. Suppose ne happened to rub the
wrong way? He is called to a case of
celluitis, in which, if left alone, nature
might interpoSe an effective barrier to
the further inroads of virulent germs till
the surgeons aid should be invoked But
his rubbing-the sole resource of the
osteopath breaks down the delicate wall
that nature is building to protect the
economy. Then the already weakened
system must renew the fight o. perish
and perhaps both.
So, too, when the poor woman who
has ovarian tumor. whose now at
tcnuated walls have constituted a bar
rier between herself and the army OF
poisonous germs with which the tumor is
cOlonized, comes into his hands. His
every ready rubbing comes into rcquisi-
ton, the woman dies as a result, and
the unfortunate issue is blamed on q,
mysterious Providence" though she is
certainly murdered by the osCcopath as
though he had shot her through the
heart. However, he holds a tacit warrant
for any act of his in the line of his
osteopathy from the hands of this
Daniel come to judgmant-yea a
Daniel! The surgeon could have saved
her life; but her sin of omission in
liOO ldhlLS Tic duNlCc VI 1t pIySiCldu, anu
the osteopath's sin of commission caused
by his greed of gain. coupled with the
lszness that seeks royal road to the
art of healing in osteopathy rather than
qualify himself by a course of work and
study in the regular way, have destroyed
her life.
The statement that osteopatby is
neither medicine nor surgery is no doubt
true. 1t is also quite true that it pre-
tends to both medicine and surgery by
acts disavowed by words. Anything that
fppertdins to the art of healing involves
medicine or surgery, or both.
Any one, who practices, or pretend5 to
practice the science or art of healing for
fee or reward, practices or pretends to
practice medicine or surgery within the
meaning of the statute. Ask the trainers
of this law, and they will tell you that
its meaning is. that whatsoever presumes
to treat the human body must satisfy
the State of North Carolina that he has
studied that body. and the diseases to
which it is subject, sufficiently 70 make
il safe in his hands, before he can prGc-
tice his craft within her borders.
Medicine is "a jealous mistress" He
who disNarages her or seeks to under
stand 7 mysteries without assiduous-
ly WOO. her, and the knowledge she
bestows. i'll never obtain her favors.
He who takes her name in vain is already
canned. He who expects her secrets to
come to him through inspiration is a
fool, if no worse. But earnest inquiry
will reward the student whether of nedi-
cine or of law. with the truth. Conscien-
tious investigation would lead the
Csteopath into the ranks of the medical
profession or into those of some other
honest employment: while painstaking
inquiry would have saved the judge a
blunder the memory of which would out
lost his epdtaph.
His Homer suggests that perhaps the
General Assembly may pass law to pro-
tect skilful osteopaths from unskilled
practitioners of their craft Does he in
fer such probability upon the basis OF
the State having passed the statute
against medical quacks being designed
for the benefit of physicians? If so,
he has misnterpreted the spirit of the