The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-01-10

,tioe of medicine and surgery shall mean
l"practice without medicine and surgery,
THAN it could provide that "two and two
make five because it can not change
physical fact. And when it forbade all
treatment of all diseases, mental or ply
steal, without surgery or medicine. OF by
any other method. for a fee or reward,
Except by an NJ. D., it attempted to confer
a monopoly on thai method OF treatment
and this is forbidden hy the constitution.
Those not NJ. DIS contend that the al
lopathic system Of practice is contrary
to the discoveries of science and lnJurl-
Gus to the public. Some M. DIS doubt-
less believe that all treatment or disease
except by their own system is quackery'
Is this point to be decided by the NJ.
D.'s themselves through an examining
committee of five of their own numIer,
or is the public the tribunal tc decide
by employing whom each man prefers,
whether alopath, homeopath, osteopath
or the defendant? The law says that the
NJ. DTS may examine and certify whether
an applicant Is competent to be one 81
their number and no one can practice
medicine and surgery without it, but
they cannot decide for mankind that their
own system of healing is now and ever
shall be the only correct one and that
all others are to be repressed by the
strong arm of the law. This act admits
Christian Scientists to practice to cure
diseases without such examination. BY
what process of reasoning can massage,
baths and the defendant be excluded? In
the cure Of bodies. as in the cure OF
souls, Orthodoxy is my doxy, heterodoXy
is the other mans doxy"-as Bishop War
burton we'll says. This is free country,
and any man has a right to be treated
by any system he chooses. The law can
not decide that any one system shall b."
the system he shall use. II he gets I'M
proper trea tment for children or others
under his care whereby they are injured.
he is liable to punishment but whether 1t
was proper treatment or not is matter
of fact to be settled by jury OF his peers
and not a matter of law to be decided
by judge, nor prescribed beforehand
by an Act of the Legislature.
ANCIENT AND HONORABLE CALLING.
The practice of medicine and surgery
in the usual and ordinary meaning OF
that term is of the highest antiquity and
dignity. In the code of Hammurabi, King
of Babylon. fifteen centuries older than the
code of Moses, and which are engraved
on a column of black diorite, was re
Gently dug up at Susa in ancient Elan;
there are found (secs. 215-225) regulations
of the medical profession, fixing "A scale
of fees and penalties for malpractice.
Physicians are mentioned n both the
Old and New Testaments. Jeremiah
asks, SIS there no balm in Gilead? Is
there no physician there?'
The public have a right to know that
those holding themselves out as members
of that ancient and honorable profession
are competent and duly licensed as such.
The legislature can exert its police power
to that end because it is a profession
whose practice requires the highest skill
and learning But there are methods Of
treatment which do not require much
skill and learning, if any. Patients have
right to use such methods II they wish
and the attempt to require an examIna-
ton of the character above reclted for
the application of such treatment is not
warranted by any legitimate exercise Of
the police power.
The effect would be to prohibit to those
who wish it, those cheap and simple
remedies and deprive thoseawho practice
them, of their humble gains. by either
giving a monopoly of such remedies to
iting the use of such remedies altogether
neither of which results the legislature
could have contemplated and both O;
which are forbidden by the provisions
Of the constitution above cited.
In this case the defendant is found
guilty of the following acts and no more:
% Administering massage, baths and
physical culture.
(2) Manipulating muscles. bones, spine
and solar plexus.
(3) Kneading the muscles with the
fingers of the hand.
ca Advising his patients what to eat
and what not.
And all this without prescription. with
out any drugs or surgery. These acts,
by the terms of the statute, are harmless
and not indictable "unless done for fee
or reward" There is nothing in this
| treatment that calls for an exercise Of
the police power by way of an examira-
ton by q learned board or obstetrics,
therapeutics materia medica and the other
things. a knowledge of which is SO prop
erly required for one who would serve
the public faithfully and honorably as a
doctor Of medicine.
POLICE POWER LIMITED.
| 1t is not only in the scope of the police
power for the state to regulate the prac-
tice of medicine and surgery" and to
throw around the public any reasonable
protection against unfit members Of that
honorable profession and provide against
malpractice, but the general assembly can
prohibit any pretended art of healing
which is calculated to deceive and niure
the public 1t is also within its power
to protect the public against the ignorant
and vicious who profess knowledge and
skill in any art or profession of healing,
in which technical knowledge and learn
ing are required to safely and properly
practice it. But it is not found here that
the defendant is deceiving and injur;ng
the public, or is ignorant ami lncompet-
ent, to the detriment of the public, in
the application of the methods he uses.
1t may be that if he were not there,
some of the patients might call IN an
M. D., but that is due possibly to the
ignorance or perversity of the patients,
who may prefer the defendants methods
and scale of fees. The police power does
not extend to such cases.
The law is thus stated in Law ton VS..