Article March 23, 1899 Issue

Missouri Medical Bills

Medical Arena

On another page will be found a copy of a medical bill introduced by Mr. J. H. Hawthorne of Kansas City. This bill protects minority interests and has the support of many homeopaths. While no advocate of any medical bill, we should prefer to see the Hawthorne bill becoming a law rather than any of those infamous measures that place all power in the hands of allopaths. As the homeopaths may be said to be favorable to the Hawthorne bill, this measure will demonstrate to the public that homeopaths are not averse to a measure that really elevates the standard of medical proficiency but are unalterably opposed to one that places them in the clutches of their natural enemies.

We have just perused a copy of a medical bill that has been evolved by the committee of the lower house as a committee bill in substitution for the Wilson bill. The principal change in the original Wilson bill is that of the heading wherein it is designated a committee bill. Only two amendments are made to the Wilson bill as orignally introduced; one is to reduce the charge for examination from twenty-five dollars to ten dollars, and the other is to define what is to be regarded as practicing medicine so as to include everything that may be done for the purpose of healing the sick. The bill thus makes it a criminal offence for a Christian Scientist, an osteopath, or any other healer to practice their professed healing powers without first passing an examination before the State Board in the various branches of medicine.

It would be the approach to an ideal to have all physicians and professed healers thoroughly grounded in the various branches of medical study as usually pursued in medical colleges. On the other hand there are many people in the State of Missouri who have been restored to health by means that are not regarded as professional, after exhausting all professional means that seemed open to them. As honest physicians we should make no attempt at a denial of these facts. The power of healing is not confined to the profession, and the medical man who has the true interests of his patient at heart is not unwilling to have relief obtained after he has failed to secure it. The doctor who would prefer that his patient should die of his ills rather than be cured in the way that he might most desire, is unfit for the practice of medicine according to any system. In view of these facts there is a good deal of gall in the assumption that all cures must be wrought by licentiates of the State Board. As a liberal and honorable profession it is unbecoming of us to ask of any legislature that such laws should be passed. As men capable of seeing the future such a short-sighted and foolish policy ought to be abandoned before it receives serious consideration. As a portion of the community loving individual liberty it should never enter our minds to deny the right to our neighbor, whom we cannot cure, to call to his aid anything that may promise that greatest of all blessings—good health. We should not ask permission thus to trespass upon the dearest rights of others; the legislature should not permit us to do it and best of all, for our intended victims, and far worse for ourselves, the supreme court of the state stands ready to forbid that any such inalienable rights shall be delegated to any set of men.

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