Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1914-06-23
MULTIPLICATION BY AMENDMENT

Ill Spllc VI tu6 ldCI ludt lC6lSidClOA
restricting the practice of medicine
to those showing adequate training
and qualifications can be justified
only on the ground Of public good,
each year, in practically every state
in which the legislature meets, the
medical practice act of that state is
subject to attack from some source.
Thus each year it is necessary for
those interested in the maintenance
of high educational standards to re.
sist the assaults made on the law.
One who has watched the course of
legislation throughout the country for
a number of years, says The Journal
of the American Medical Association,
is led to wonder why a law clearly In
the interest of the public must each
year be defended from attack by
those interested in breaking down its
restrictions. In spite of the agita-
ton against such laws under the pre-
text that the individual should be al
lowed free choice of DOCTORS" it is
significant that the attacks on medi.
cal practice acts are always inspired
and led by those who wish to treat
the sick for compensation and not by
those who wish the privilege of Sc.
lecting some unqualified practitioned
as an attendant. Another significant
TACT Is that no natter how carefully
or how diligently guarded after its
passage a medical practice law may
be, 1t is eventually nullified, either
partially or completely, by the pas
sage Of an amendment or the render
ing of a judicial decision modifying
the definitions or introducing such
as will make it possible
for unframed and unqualified persons
to perform, under the authority of
the law, the very acts which the law
itself was intended to prohibit. This
process has occurred re-
peatedly in different states. No bet.
ter example of it has recently been
observed than the recent amendment
Of the Massachusetts, medical practice
act, which resulted in the
adoption Of the following amend.
mentment: Nothing in this act
shall be held to appl" to registered
registered dentists or
registered optometrists, or to restrain
the practice of clairvoyance, hypno.
tism OF mind cure, or to apply to any
who administers to or treats
the sick or the suffering by mental
or spiritual means without the use of
drugs or materia' remedies" Evil
IDENTIFY the belief in Massachusetts in
spirits, ghosts and similar supersti-
lions has persisted ever since Cotton
Mather's day. The legalization by
the Massachusetts legislature of the
fortune.telling clai. oyants who are
being put out of business. as swind-
lers by the police in many of our
Is a sad commentary on legis-
lative conditions in a state which was
regarded as the intellectual lead.
er OF the nation. Another amend
ment to the bill defined the practice
OF medicine so as to restrict 1t very
largely to those claiming to be scien-
.tificallly educated and qualified ply
sicians. That is, the Massachusetts
law has gradually been modified by
from a restrictive meas
ure into a definite law, in. which the
illegal act consists, not in treating d.
sease without proper qualifications
and authority, but in claiming to be
what one is not, namely, a legally
Qualified medical practitioner. Such
a definite law, as has been repeatedly
pointed out, has its advantages. It
must be clearly recognized by physi-
clans and others interested, however,
that a purely definite law is not re-
strictive and never can be. The
amendment of the Massachusetts, act
furnishes another interesting chapter
IN the history of our complicated.
contradictory and generally ineffect-
i've methods of regulating the practice
OF medicine by law.