Editorial August 4, 1906 Issue

Medical Legislation

Archibald McLellan

We are advised by our brethren in Louisiana that the recent attempt of the physicians in that State to secure legislation adverse to the practice of Christian Science has been defeated, the proposed bill having been withdrawn by its author in order to give it, as he said, "a decent burial." This bill, as we assume, was the outcome of the proceedings of the Louisiana State Medical Society at its meeting held about a year ago, when the remarks of one of the members was reported by the New Orleans Picayune as follows:—

"Dr. J. M. Barrier thought the thing to do would be to bring this down to an issue and make it a practical question, so the average politician can get hold of it. Say to the legislator, while at home: 'We want certain things; you want certain things; if not right now, later. Give us what we want; you can have what you want.' Tell him that if he don't do it, that we'll do him a plenty the next time he runs for the Legislature. That is the way to handle them. You will find them very amenable to treatment."

It would appear from the defeat of this latest attempt to enact monopolistic legislation for the benefit of a favored class, that the physician quoted by the Picayune was mistaken in his estimate of the gentlemen who compose the Louisiana Legislature, and that these gentlemen can be depended upon to do their duty without fear of such threats. In commenting upon Dr. Barrier's statement, shortly after it was made, we said, "We cannot believe that the laws of Louisiana are made by such men as this doctor has in mind," and it would seem that our estimate of the Legislature was correct.

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