Medical board

“ If the board be satisfied by examination that a person is duly qualified to practise either or all of said branches of medicine, as taught and practised by homœopathists, they shall certify the same under the hands and seals of two or all of such board. ”

“ Only men who are, by thorough education and experience, especially fitted to fill their respective positions, have been chosen to serve as physicians and surgeons in this institution. After having spent a very large sum of money in erecting and furnishing this national resort for invalids with every requirement and facility for the successful treatment of all classes of chronic diseases, it is the determination of the Board of Directors that the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons shall be superior in culture, experience and skill. ”

“ The practice of the Poor Law Board at this time was to assert on paper the supremacy of the medical officer in his own department, to give him no personal support when he did his duty, to visit on his head all the consequences of their own negligence or dilatoriness, and, right or wrong, to support the Guardians when they took offence at conscientiousness and zeal. ”

“ I resolved to watch the action [Pg 80] of the Department, and to do my best to make the permanent officials do their duty, so far as my observation could aid me. With that object in view, I arranged for an aggregate meeting of the profession, at the Freemason's Tavern, to discuss the composition of the so-called Board at Whitehall, and the grievances of the Poor Law medical officers. ”

“ In the closing hours of the legislative session of 1895, at the request of Governor Greenhalge, he resigned from the Senate to accept the position of secretary and executive officer of the Board of Registration in Medicine, a position he held from June 20, 1895, until April 1, 1913, when owing to continued ill health he was forced to resign as secretary, but in acordance with the request of his associates, continued a member of the board until his death. After 1895 he gave up active practice. ”

“ PROPOSED NATIONAL BOARD OF PUBLIC HEALTH, CONTROLLED BY ONE SCHOOL OF DOCTORS, CONDEMNED A typical instance of the dangerous tendency of the medical profession to extend its power over the people is shown in the recent scheme of the proposed National Department of Public Health, to be composed chiefly of doctors of one sect, with a head doctor having a seat in the President’s Cabinet. ”

“ Thus he took part in two important medical advances in his native state, the inauguration of a medical examiner system, replacing the antiquated coroners, and in the formation and perpetuation of a progressive state board of health, one that acquired an enviable reputation throughout the country. ”

“ Health Board of men especially accustomed to the dispatch of business, and in part of medical men of great skill and experience.
3. It should have a corps of skilled medical officers as inspectors, which should be the eyes, the ears, in a word, the senses of the board, in every part of the city, searching out disease, investigating the causes which give rise to it, the conditions under which it exists, the means of its propogation, and the most effectual mode of its suppression. ”

“ The specialists in surgery on the staff of the Bureau shall be recommended by the medical sanitary department, with the consent of the Board of Directors, preferably from among the surgeons connected with the hospital fund, and shall be confirmed by a general meeting of the office.
3. During the examination of a person at the Bureau of the Medical Commission, all persons who have applied for the examination may be present.
4. An application for the determination of the loss of working ability may be made by any person or institution. ”

“ In August 1871, in accordance with the report of the royal sanitary commission which was appointed in April 1869 to consider means of co-ordinating the various public health authorities, the old poor law board, the local government act office (of the home office) , and the medical department of the privy council were amalgamated to form one new department, the local government board. Simon became chief medical officer of the new board in the belief that his independent powers would be extended rather than diminished. ”

“ At a second meeting, held on 13 April 1947, the Board discussed the plans for the new Institute of Pathology, its functions, and its administrative status, and recommended to The Surgeon General that facilities be provided for "research in pathology in the broadest sense," that the personnel of the Institute be "free to conduct research on an individual basis, in addition to participation in major problems of the Army Medical Department," and that the Director of the Institute "should be responsible directly to the Surgeon General." ”

“ In Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, Texas and Vermont, there appear to be no statutory requirements regulating the practice of physicians or surgeons. In Virginia, the practitioner only needs a license. In Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin, a practitioner must either have a license from a medical board or society, constituted according to the law of the respective States, or else be a graduate of a medical college. ”

“ If not a graduate, a person practising medicine or surgery, unless in continuous practice in this State for not less than five years, of which he must present to the board satisfactory evidence in the form of affidavits, must appear before the board for examination. All examinations are in writing; all examination papers with the reports and action of examiners are preserved as records of the board for five years. The subjects of examination are anatomy, physiology, general chemistry, pathology, therapeutics, and the principles and practice of medicine, surgery, and obstetrics. ”

“ Those who are in the receipt of other relief by order of the board, and who belonged to one of the other classes, would be excluded from this list. There are two modes of regulating the medical out-door relief in kind. One mode is to require the medical officers to attend the meetings of the boards of guardians. It is their duty to report upon the state of health of each out-door sick person at specified times, and to state the kind of nutriment adapted to each case. The board is thus furnished with a sanatory report from one officer, and a report upon circumstances from the other. ”

“ Each examination is conducted by a regents’ examiner who shall not be one of the medical examiners. At the close of each examination the regents’ examiner in charge is required to deliver the question and answer papers to the board selected by each candidate, or its duly authorized committee, and such board, without unnecessary delay, is required to examine and mark the answers and transmit to the regents an official report stating the standing of each candidate in each branch, his general average, and whether the board recommends that a license be granted. ”

“ In my opinion the medical officer should select and discharge all the nurses—of course, reason for this latter action being shown. I should have discharged several at the Westminster Union for neglect of duty and for general incompetence if I had had the power. Simple complaint would be attended by no beneficial result, as it would be a hundred to one that the nurse would be supported in her misconduct by some member of the Board, whose protege she might be. ”

“ Persons not graduates in medicine who had practised medicine in this State under a certificate issued by the State board of health prior to the passage of the act are authorized to practise medicine in all its departments. ”

“ The Guardians being unwilling to pay the fees of two medical men, the medical man called upon to give the second certificate was paid. As this appointment was dependent on the caprice of the Board, it frequently happened that the other medical man, who was aware of the feeling of certain of the Guardians, would refuse to endorse my opinion, but I always succeeded in getting my way in the end. One medical man who held this office for some time was constantly striving to secure favour by giving the most unaccountable certificates as to the condition of the lunatic submitted to him. ”

“ Suitable provisions must be made by each examining board to prepare a schedule of written examination upon anatomy, physiology, chemistry, surgery, practice of medicine, materia medica and therapeutics, obstetrics, gynæcology, pathology, medical jurisprudence and hygiene; the same standard of excellence is required from all candidates; in therapeutics and practice, the questions must be in harmony with the tenets of the school selected by the candidate ”

“ In conjunction with my friend, the late R. Griffin, of Weymouth, who distinguished himself so much by an advocacy of an amended system of medical relief, and the late Dr. R. Fowler, of Bishopsgate Street, I volunteered to give evidence before the Committee. Some time after, being asked by the late Metropolitan Inspector, H. B. Farnall, Esq., C.B., to call upon him at the Poor Law Board, I did so. "I hear," said he, "that you have asked to give evidence before the Select Committee; pray, what are you going to state?" ”

“ I also brought with me the nurse and assistant school-mistress. I told the Board that some of the cases were so very bad that I must be allowed to call in an ophthalmic surgeon to aid me in my treatment. This was also assented to. I also arranged that the children should go for a run in the [Pg 170] park every day, weather permitting. I considered the dietary of the children, and, finding it to be wholly insufficient, I amended it. I adopted a similar course at the school. Fortunately for the children the Chairman of the Board, a medical man, supported me in all I advised and did. ”

“ This laid down the important principle that there should be an unofficial majority. For a time the secretary also acted as sanitary superintendent, but, the duties increasing to such an extent that he was unable to devote sufficient attention to outdoor matters, a Medical Officer of Health was appointed. In consequence of the decision of the Legislative Council that in the event of a vacancy occurring the Medical Officer should occupy a seat on the Sanitary Board, all the unofficial save one resigned. ”

“ In medicine he early turned his attention to constructive legislation, and had the honor of being the author of the bill for the establishment of the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine, and in aiding in its passage in 1894. ”

“ Every person is entitled to have his name entered on the register on satisfying the board that he holds a degree or diploma from some regular university or school of medicine in good standing, and he shall then receive from the board a license bearing its seal, on the payment to the registrar of $5, and shall have his name entered on the register (ib., s. 11) .
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No such licensed practitioner shall be entitled to practise in any year without taking out from the board, before the 1st of January in every year, a certificate of practice for which he shall pay $1 (ib., s. 12) . ”

“ Deeply interested in all sanitary matters, Dr. Bowditch was appointed in 1869 by the Governor of Massachusetts, with six others, to form a State Board of Health, the first in the United States; and as chairman of the board he gave much time and thought to this work, without salary, for ten years, until the foolish tactics of General Benjamin Butler prevailed and with false notions of economy the Governor then in office combined the Boards of Health, Lunacy, and Charity. ”

“ This story illustrates the utter absurdity of the provision in the Lord Chancellor's Bill committing the examination of these cases to a county court judge, police magistrate, or Justice of the Peace, who cannot possibly understand anything about the varied phases which insanity presents. The district medical officer who jointly filled in the certificate with me was deprived of his office, and a more manageable person was elected by the Board in his stead—that person I have before referred to in the earlier part of this narrative as giving me so much needless trouble. ”

“ That the full report of the board may be released by the board or other medical personnel only to other medical personnel for medical purposes, unless otherwise authorized by the convening authority or, after referral of charges by the military judge, except that a copy of the full report shall be furnished to the defense and, upon request, to the commanding officer of the accused ”

“ I had hardly passed the gate when the master rushed into the hall and inquired whether I had left; on hearing I had done so, he said in a loud voice, "I have caught that damned doctor at last," and directed the porter to go for the nearest medical man. Some gentleman came and attended to her, and the bill, and a garbled statement of the facts, was sent by Catch to the Board. I was ordered to attend their next meeting and explain my conduct. I requested the attendance of the porter and of the pauper nurse at the Board's meeting. Catch gave his version of the story. ”

“ Papers concerning the enforced resignation by Dr. Rogers of his post as medical officer of the Strand Union have been published. They amply justify everything we have said as to the unwarrantable character of the action of the Poor Law Board and of the Strand Board of Guardians in the whole affair. ”

“ Binney and Gibson, accurate lawyers, had they been more successful, would not have used the indefinite language quoted in giving an opinion upon a title. Surgeons’ Hall was subsequently the Board of Health office. ”