Show MEDICAL LAWS AND MEDICAL HUMBUGS The View of DrER Foote Senior The American Medical Association has just held its annual convention at New Orleans and on the 1st inst it adopted a resolution which was telegraphed to the press throughout the country by the Associated As-sociated Press agent The resolution reads as follows Rctoleetl That steps be taken to establish in each State a board of examiners in medical science whose certificates tbell be the only authority au-thority to practice in those States A bill to this effect will be referred to the societies in each State Thinking that Dr Foote Sr who is temporarily sojourning in our attractive city would be interested in a measure of thfe kind in view of the brazen effrontery which quackery assumes we sought his opinion in regard to it To our surprise we found the Doctor was not much ir sympathy with laws of this character lie informs us that he belongs to what is called a Medical Freedom Association in New York which opposes all such eiiact ments for the reason that they do not result in weeding out of the profession unskilled practitioners nor even those who use the mask of the profession in perpetrating a dispicable form of piracy on suffering humanity According to Dr Footes idea a medical education alone neither qualifies a man to practice medicine nor to act the part of a humanitarian while the success of any man in medicine must depend upon natural adaptation as well as education and upon sympathy for human ills aa well as natural aptitude and culture The Doctor related to us that he was a member of the Board of Censors in the Eclectic Medical Society in New York City at the time the existing statutes in New York were enacted that many very valuable men in the profession who had gained their knowledge from 25 to 30 years honorable practice found themselves them-selves humiliated in some instances by being denied a 1 certificate to practice while young men of no experience and simply that knowledge which text books I impart were allowed to go forth to learn how to treat disease rAn Italian peasant woman whose name I the Doctor does not recall was induced by l 4ou Sfnwiirt 1 L Wood ford f xTif > iit Governor JI M U4VtY of Vlu New U York to visit this country 1 coun-try because of her wonderful native skill in curing diseases of the hip joint She had been here but a short time and was exciting the envy and wonder of the profession pro-fession by I her operations when the medical med-ical laws of New York were adopted and she straightway returned to Italy The i Sweets the natural bone setters were mentioned as a notable instance of surgical surgi-cal genius and many others none oi whom could have practiced their profession profes-sion under these restrictive laws But would not such measures be advantageous ad-vantageous to you at this moment queried our reporter Certainly was the quick response and for my personal advantage I should be glad if such a law existed in this Territory Terri-tory today No one could practice medicine medi-cine without giving his true name and he would very naturally give the name borno by his diploma if he possessed one One of the first letters I received on reaching Salt Lake City suggested that I had better ask the selfstyled Dr Foot Jr to show his diploma The letter stated that nobody no-body here had ever seen it and it was not believed that he had one In this connection said Dr Foote II I will relate another peculiar circumstance circum-stance An elderly gentleman of pleasing pleas-ing address called on me and said his son had arranged with Dr Foot Jr to go to Portland Oregon and open a branch office The old gentleman said that the young man knew nothing of medicine medi-cine having been brought up in the cattle cat-tle ranch business He called to find out what he could about the man with whom his son was about to be associated His good farmer sense led him to express the opinion that while his son might be able to carry on a ranch business successfully suc-cessfully the practice of medicine or the management of a medical institute would be something quite new to him Now remarked the Doctor medical med-ical laws would straighten out abuses of this character without doubt A medical office can not be set up in San Francisco Cal or in Denver Col without a medical med-ical license and that license can only be obtained by showing a well earned diploma dip-loma or passing a medical examination Then you think that this socalled Dr Foot Jr will hardly be able to exhibit attainments f any such credentials or III feel confident replied the Doctor that he cannot show any such documents docu-ments in the name of Dr Foot Jr I venture it simply as my opinion that he cannot exhibit them in any name whatsoever whatso-ever everEven in Oregon continued the Doc torthey are on the point of passing restrictive re-strictive medical laws A bill of that and once passed the Senate almost unanimously but was defeated in the House Then after that it was passed by I I the House but was defeated in the Senate Dr E P Frazer the Secretary of the I Oregon State Medical Society says We I have had a bill of some kind before the Legislature at every session for the past ten years and will continue to do so until un-til we succeed It is therefore only probably a question of time when such a measure will be adopted in Oregon and then all branch Institutes will have to exhibit credentials or take in their signs Any person in California practicing medicine or surgery without first procuring pro-curing a certificate from one of the Boards of Examiners is guilty of a misdemeanor and punished The statute is very sweeping in its character and every person per-son who professes publicly to be a physician physi-cian or who uses the prefix of Dr or the title M D is required to possess a certificate cer-tificate issued by the State Boards A similar statute exists in Colorado and while as remarked before I am not fully in sympathy with this kind of legislation I shall certainly take advantage of it if any branch institutes are opened in a name intended to deceive my patients and correspondents in those localities There ought to be a statute protecting a man in his name the same as there is I trade mark In fact the one to protect a laws protecting trade marks almost but I just come a little short of giving exactly amendment I that protection A slight would cover the deficiency My son feels justly incensed that any one should make use of his name with simply the omission of the terminal e in such away a-way as to bring disgrace upon it and I 1 with good reason feel injured that my book readers in the West are given the impression that my establishment in New York is represented by a branch hereThen Then you think that the mans patronymic pat-ronymic is not Foot at all I think not I told him soon after I arrived in this city that if he were to name to me his fatherl could very quickly quick-ly determine whether he was entitled to the cognomen of Foot that if his name was Foot I had no quarrel with him but inasmuch as his father could have no such prominence as a physician as to require re-quire the younger man to use the Jr to distinguish him I should insist that he drop that It is a remarkable fact that nobody here knows his family lineage and no one can tell in what part of the country he originated I The guaranteeing of cures is no new thing on the part of sharpers in the profession pro-fession continued the Doctor The way in which that kind of trickery is usually managed is this A cure is guaranteed guar-anteed for a certain sum of money The patient cannot claim to have carried out his contract with the doctor unless he obeys his instructions and takes his medicines med-icines When the pretender finds that he is not able to cure his patient he can give him such nauseating drugs that lie would rather forfeit the fee advanced than to fulfill his contract In conclusion remarked Dr Foote Sr if there could be any just and impartial im-partial regulations dropping out of the profession the unskilled and unprincipled unprinci-pled it would certainly be a grand accomplishment ac-complishment We have alarmists in the profession who make nervous people think they are in a terrible condition and then when they succeed by a few doses or words of encouragement in allaying the very fears which they themselves have aroused in the patient they can present wonderful certificates of cures Piracy on the high seas and highway high-way robbery are bad enough but piracy in the medical profession where imaginative imagina-tive people are encountered on even side may be and doubtless is remunerative but is inhumane even to cruelty and the worst kind of robbery known to the human family Medical laws only eliminate elim-inate the irregularities of this class baying bay-ing those who have pursued medical studies and are able to answer the textbook text-book questions undisturbed no matter how inhumane or mercenary they maybe may-be in their conduct towards their patients I might be said thatthis would show that some good may be accomplished by restrictive re-strictive measures but it is only right to consider that this good is perhaps more than counterbalanced by the evil of throwing obstructions in the way of medi cal prodigies arising from the masses to a useful profession through real genius for the healing art and the suppression of those men and women who have attained to great practical usefulness use-fulness after twenty or thirty years conscientious con-scientious devotion to the alleviation of human ills without that scholastic training I train-ing which would enable them to receive a certificate from the Board of Examiners There is much to be said on both sides of this question but when the pros and cons are pU in the balance and it is remembered remem-bered that the great progress that we I have made in medicine during the past 100 years of our nations existence has been doubtless mainly due to the greatest freedom in medicine the candid mind will be apt to pause before giving its restrictive laws assent to |