The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-02-05
THE STATE BOARD OF HEALTH.

scrupulous men in the state who would
like to draw the teeth" of the pure
food and drugs law by packing the
state board of health with members
friendly to their interests. But this is
! not the intention of the honest BUSH
ness men of the state, manufacturers,
merchants and others, who are asking
for representation on this most impor-
tant board. Nor has such a sugges-
ton ever received the slightest en-
dorsement in any discussions of the
subject that have been presented IN
these columns. Except for the few
that have Interior purposes in view
there has been no demand from any
responsible quarter that the control of
this most important governmental
agency be taken from the physicians
of the state. All that has been asked
is that the wide variety of business in
terests which come within the juris-
diction of the board be given mi
nority representation on it, so that
they can give practical and expert ad-
vice to the controlling power in the
formulation of rules and regulations
for the conduct of business that it is !
ridiculous to assert that men are COM
petent to control and govern simply
medicine. |
1t is almost puerile to urge that rep
resentative business men, who might
be named as part of the mi |
nority of the board, would be !
immune to the penalties of the pure
food and drugs law during their term
of service, because the attaches of the |
board of health would not dare to |
proceed against them no matter how |
flagrantly they violated the law for
fear of losing their official heads. 1t
is not to be presumed that the APP /
pointing power would select the scala
ways in business for membership on
this board. And the reliable and hon
est food manufacturers in this state
are in favor of the pure food and
drugs law, and its rigid enforcement.
1t protects them from the very men
who, some alarrnist seem to believe,
are being groomed to take possession
of the state board of health and an
initiate the pure food and drugs law
with one scratch of a pen.
And if the argument is reasonable
that thu multitudinous activities of the
board of health in the regulation of
concerns that come within the reach
of the pure, food and drugs laws can
only be discharged acceptably by
physicians because they are disinter
ested parties to the operation of this
law and have no personal axes in the
premises to grind. is it not also peril
nent to suggest that as long as the
control of the board of health is ex-
cIusively in the hands of physicians,
no effort will be made by them to
provide reasonable rules for the regu
lation of themselves and their breth
rem in the medical profession?
1t must be borne in mind that the
regulation of the sale and handling of
drugs is just as important a function
of the board of health under the law
as is the regulation of the manufac-1
ture and sale of food products. But
the regulation and sale of drugs up
to date is applied merely to druggists
A large percentage of the doctors carl
nv medicine and many of them COM
pound their own prescriptions Thet
big bulk of the doctors of Kansas aret
careful and competent men, most adj
mirable men, in fact, whose ideals are
in keeping with the grave Importance
of their calling. There are unscrupu-
lous physicians. though, just as there
are INSCRIPTIONS men in every other
field of human activity. 1t is such
men that make necessary the enact
ment of all sorts of regulatory lesisla-
ton. And because there are unscrup-
ulous men in the medical profession,
if is lust as essential that the doctors
be subjected TO a reasonable regula-
ton as it is that the food manufac-
turers of the state should be subjected
to a like regulation because there hap
pens to be interruptions men among
them.
Why shouldn't the drug law be ap-i
Piled as searchingly to the doctors as
it is to the druggists? Does the doc
tor keep copy of the prescriptions
that he fills himself? Does he keep
a poison register? Is he registered
pharmacist? Is it not possible that
he might use drugs under the stand
ard? Furthermore are his surgical
instruments and private or hospital
operating rooms under sanitary in
spection, a most important matter to
the health of many an unsophisticated
patient who may not be particularly
careful in the choice of his physician?
Indeed, doesn't he issue a certificate
of his own as to the cause OF pa
TENTS death?
OF course there is not one doctor
in ten, or maybe one in a hundred
who would need any such regulation
But it might be most properly made
to protect an ignorant public from the
few who do. And on the theory that
business men on the board of health
would not adopt rules and regulations
for a most rigid enforcement of the
pure food law. it would be just as
sensible to argue that as long as the