The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, JUNE 17, 1867.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume II, Issue 139, 17 June 1867, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, JUNE 17, 1867.

Our correspondent '"Anti-caustic" in bis letter, whicb appears in another column, comments in very decided terras upon the concluding paragraph of Dr. Cusack's Hospital Report, published in tbe Government Gazette of the llth inst., in whicb be expresses bis bope that tbe Government may be able to find a remedy .which may restrain and prohibit the practice of persons who are * ; not in any way educated, nor legally qualified to practice as medical men." We must at once confess our deliberate opinion that the fact that no law to regulate the qualifications of practitioners iv medicine and surgery cau be found in the Statute Book of New Zealand is oue of a very grave character. We unquestionably desire persous requiring medical aid to be enabled to distinguish between qualified aud unqualified practitioners, and thus to protect the public from the designs of unprincipled charlatans and impostors. It may be alleged, with some show of truth, that tbe publication in the Government Gazette of those duly qualified practitioners who, on their settling in tbe province, have exhibited their diplomas, etc., to tbe Resident Magistrate, is a sufficient advertisement to tbe public of their possession of the requisite authority to enable them to practise. But it is hardly necessary to point out tbat the Government Gazette is perused by comparatively a very small proportion of the population of tbe province, and therefore is very inadequate to the purpose. What we require is this," that we sbould be able to distinguish between the duly qualified physician, surgeon, and apothecary, whether allopathisfs ; homoeopathic or hydropathists ; and that no practitioner shall be at liberty to assume professional titles to whicb he has no just claim. Having done'this, the law should leave people free to follow the bent of tbeir own inclinations in selecting their medical advisers. If Mr. Diouysius Peptic likes to place himself in tbe hands of a charlatan, the charlatan at the time sailing uuder his true colors, there is ouly himself to suffer. If youug Heiter Skelter chooses to have his brokeu knee set, or bis necrosed knee-joint excised by an impudent pretender, who knows nothing of anatomy and surgery, and who does not iv auy way advertis, or represent himself to be a surgeon, the unfortunate youth is at liberty to do so, and must bear the consequences of his own folly ; bufc the law has a right, and is uuder an obligation to interpose, to prevent practitioners from imposing on the public by false pretences, and from assuming designations which do not belong to tbem. The Medical Act, which passed the Imperial Paliament in ISSS, appears to have been framed in a liberal spirit, and might serve as the basis of our own legislation ou the subject, were it not that we are met upon the threshold by the difficulty ol constituting in a small community like our own a " General Council of Medical Education aud Registration, " whicb should exercise tbe great aud delicate power entrusted to it with unimpeachable judgment and impartiality, and without exhibiting personal feeling or professional exclusiveness. In this Act we find a clause to this effect: — "Any person wbo shall wilfully and falsely pre-tend to be, or take or use the name or title of a physician, doctor of medicine, licentiate in medicine and surgery, bachelor

of medicine, surgeon, general practitioner, or apothecary, or any name, title, addition, or description' implying tbat he is recognised by law as a physician, or surgeon, or licentiate in medicine and surgery, or a practitioner in medicine, or an apothecary, shall, upon a summary conviction for any such offence, pay a sum not exceediug £20." i Such a safeguard as is thus supplied, is/ especially required in this colony, where; the circumstauces of society are peculiarly favorable to the success of medical impostures, and the delusion and plunder of their dupes. Instances have been known of men whose sole knowledge of pharmacy has been picked up while serving as, errand-boys in a chemist's sbop or a dispensary, purchasing the diploma of a defunct surgeon, assuming his name with prefix of Dr., and starting in business as medical practitioners upon the gold-fields of this colony with all the assurance fo audacious ignorance, and with a success inversely commensurate with tbeir professional capacity. If uaturc performed a cure, the pretender claimed the credit of it ; if his patieut unfortunately sank under his treatment, who but nature, or, possibly, the professional assistance to which he bad previously had recourse, was to blame? If the spurious M. D. was a prudent man, iie would probably abstain from the exhibition of any powerful agents; and if a difficult surgical case presented itself, he would call in the legitimate surgeon, upon whom he might devolve the operation and the reponsibility. If the qualifications of our colonial practitioners could have been rigorously tested ouly some few years aeo, the result would have been, in very many cases, as amusing as Felix O'Callagharfs confession of incompetency iv " His Last Legs". Nor is the race of impudent pretenders altogether extinct in the year of Grace 1867. There is one other clause in the Imperial Medical Act, to which attention may be called, as a similar proviso ought to be incorporated into any measure of a like character whicb may be introduced into our own colonial legislature. We allude to the clause which specifies that in case the General Council shall think fit to erase from its register the name of auy one of its members, through misconduct or other infraction of itslaws, "the name of no person shall be erased from the register on the ground of his haviug adopted auy theory of medicine or surgery." The liberal and comprehensive spirit in which this clause is framed should be imitated in this colony. Let every facility be afforded for the widest diversities of practice, while at the same time we may demand from the practitioner the certificate to prove that he is master of. that branch of his art and science, or ot that particular system, however novel or strange, which he professes to adopt or pursue.