Is realizing the reaction of public opinion against all forms of
monopoly. There is some plausibility in the demand that all who heal
should educate themselves, if we had a true system of education, which
we have not. But there is no justice in the demand that those whom
nature has gifted with great healing powers should be prohibited from
exercising their natural gifts, or giving advice to their neighbors,
whenever they happen to know anything that is useful. To interfere
with such acts of benevolence, which are really the performance of a
religious duty, is a crime, and it is none the less criminal when it
is the act of legislators, who are careless enough to allow themselves
to be made the tools of an avaricious monopoly, which would make it a
crime for a farmer's wife to give her neighbor's children a blackberry
cordial or hoarhound syrup. When the law makes benevolence a crime,
laws and legislators become objects of contempt, and a dangerous
spirit of rebellion is fostered.
In Illinois a law has been obtained from a careless and unthinking
legislature, which makes all healing a crime, when not performed by
graduated, licensed and registered practitioners, but the law is so
odious that it is not enforced against those who are not administering
medicines. In Iowa an equally disgraceful law has been obtained,
designed to establish a similar monopoly, but the prosecution against
a lady for assisting a patient with her prayers resulted in her
acquittal, and the medical societies have been paralyzed as to its
enforcement. Dr. R. C. Flower, of Boston, has made several addresses
to large audiences in that State, in opposition to medical
legislation, and the report of his very spirited and effective lecture
in the Des Moines _Register_ shows that he carried his audiences with
him, and roused enthusiasm in opposition to the law. Dr. F. related
some terrific cases of malpractice by eminent physicians, and
portrayed the horrible effects of the law in upholding quackery.
The present law of Mississippi is a disgrace to the civilization of
that State. It would authorize the prosecution of any one who helped
the sick, even by prayer, if the benevolent party was not protected by
a medical license.
In Alabama the law gives to the old school State medical association
the entire control of medical practice, and the power to examine and
license every one who does any practice. Under this law graduates of
Eclectic colleges who are outside of the medical ring, have been
prosecuted for non-compliance with the law, but the prosecution was
defeated. Mississippi and Alabama need to be Americanized. Medical
bigotry has carried them back to the dark ages, for there is not a
country in Europe to-day which is not more enlightened and liberal in
its medical legislation than these two States.
Monopoly is one of the most formidable enemies of American liberty. It
is now assuming the form of "Trust" combinations to raise prices, but
there is no monopoly so grasping as the medical,--none which assumes
to suppress competition by law.
The plea of promoting education is as false as a proposal to elevate
the pulpit by compelling every clergyman to pass through a Roman
Catholic college. The existing medical colleges hold the same relation
to the practice of the healing art as the Sectarian Theological
Seminary to the practice of Christianity. One may be a very good
Christian without the help of a theological seminary, or a very good
doctor without the help of a medical college, but no one can be a
first-class physician who goes through a medical college and adheres
strictly to all the knowledge and all the ignorance administered by
professors, without learning anything from other sources.