New Britain herald., 1916-01-06
EDITORIAL REPRINT
 IN HERALD REbUkED
Exception Taken to Article Of Dec. "A Entitled, "As to Med-
 iCal Freedom"
To the Editor of the New Britain
 I

Herald.
 Sir:-Is it not rather curious that the New Britain Herald should re- print from a weekly paper published at Lemar, Mo-, a heated defense of 'the regular school of medicine' from the charge of attempting to abridge the rights of the people to medical freedom? And is it not also strange that such a defense included a gibe at Christian Science healers?'
 Medical freedom is nothing more or less than the right of every citizen to choose any known method for the prevention or cure of disease, and the right to have the aid, if he so desires, of a practitioner of that system. For any one to deny that the regular school of medicine has been trying to cut off this right is a foolish denial of evident facts. Within the last year, bills which were calculated to abridge this right were introduced into the legislatures of New Hamp~ shire, West Virginia, Minnesota, and other states. In every one of these states these bills were supported by regular doctors, and in several of them they were openly backed by medical societies subsidiary to the American Medical association.
 No longer ago than last April the Journal of the American Medical as- sOciatiOn published and widely dis tributed an editorial in which the claim was made that no one should be allowed to practice any method of healing who could not make a physical diagnosis of disease. This editorial was based upon the following premise Without 8 correct diagnosis, any form of treatment is. guesswork.' The evi- dent purpose of this statement was to deny the efficacy of any curative not based on physical diagnosis It was aimed at the practice of Christian Science, which was specifically ..amed. The logical conclusion, however, from the premise in question is that medi- cal treatment is guesswork, for it is based on physical diagnosis and diag- nosis is uncertain under the most favorable conditions. The recently published statistics in the cases of 5000 patients at the Massa chusetts General hospital in which conditions discovered by post-mortem examina- tiOns were compared with diagnosis made by the. hospital staff, showed that the diagnoses were mistaken in 461A per cent. of the cases It has been pertinently observed, "This oc- cured in one of the leading hospitals of the country, where all available aids to correct diagnosis ought to be had"
 The American Medical association appears to be dominated by that part of it's membership which aims to com pei all citizens to employ the regular school of medicine, or the schools with which it may be disposed or obliged to share a monopoly. The so- called campaign of education now conducted by this association does not usually deny that such legislation is sought, but tries to justify it. As Q certain public man has said, the ad- vocates of medical monopoly try to justify it by clothing it in the gar ments of an alleged public necessity. I am glad to say, however, that the regular school of medicine is not unanimous in either c1amoring for, or even wishing to obtain, legislation which would abridge the right of every citizen to medical freedom A considerable part of the medical pro- fession recognizes the fact that no system of medicine is safe and certain enough to be a natural monopoly; if it were, it would not need to be inn posed on the public by statutes; and since no system of medicine is safe and certain enough to get monopoly by the natural law of supply and de- mand, an artificial monopoly for it would be a monstrous violation of human rights. There are other con- alterations which emphasize thi1 point of view, not the least among which is the fact that the practice oc Christian Science is the practice of +l,o IT, .io,tia n1i iIrio and exemplified by Jesus Christ, anu the further fact that this method often succeeds where material medicine has failed
 Yours truly,
 CLIFFORD P. SMITH. Boston, Mass, Jan. 1, 1916.