the lawyers in the case, yet leave the minds of the jury, or enough of them, in such a state of bewilderment, to either hang it, or enable the doubting Thomases to force a compromise verdict, if not a disagreement.

This state of affairs exists all over this country, and also in England, France and Germany, and from our law reports we read enough to force us to the conclusion that matters are not growing any better, but worse.

You ask: "What is the remedy?" answer: "I don't know, unless it lies in the cradle."

Here is a case which throws light upon the rule of law as to the skill required:

A man was thrown from his wagon by reason of his team becoming frightened and running away. He was dragged over the frozen, rough ground for quite a distance, fracturing his arm in one or more places, between the elbow and shoulder, and dislocating the arm at the shoulder joint. The bone broken was the humerus. The dislocation was the slipping, pushing or wrenching the head of the humerus from the glenoid cavity. The physician was called within one hour after the accident.

Suit was instituted by the injured man against the physician for damages for malpractice, in failing to discover the dislocation and therefore failing to treat it.

The consequence was, that the muscles of the arm became atrophied, the shoulder joint stiffened, and his arm became practically useless.

All agreed that when discovered (the dislocation), some months later, it was too late to remedy the matter.

Now, it was not claimed that the fractures were not properly treated. They healed, and at the time of the trial were in good condition. The whole case turned upon the nature of the examination given the patient, and the physician's duties in that respect; that the physician did not discover the dislocation and did not treat it. This was admitted.

It was not denied that the dislocation could have been discovered by an ordinary examination.

But as to the manner of treatment there was some conflict in the evidence.

The trial court charged the jury that if they found from the evidence that the physician did not use that degree of skill, care and attention which ordinarily skillful and prudent "hysicians and surgeons in the vicinity would have used in a like injury, then the plaintiff could

recover.

If he had used the skill, care and attention that ordinarily skillful and prudent physicians and surgeons in the vicinity would use in setting, dressing and treating a like injury, then the jury should find for the defendant.

The jury retired under such instructions and returned a verdict for the physician and denied the injured man. any relief.

He was not satisfied and appealed the case to the higher court and that court punctured the theory held by some courts. that a physician or surgeon need only exercise such care, skill and diligence as ordinarily skillful and prudent physicians. or surgeons in that vicinity would use in a like injury.

In reviewing the point at issue, the higher court said: "As has been stated, Monterey (Kentucky) is a village, somewhat isolated, and in a rural community. The number of physicians residing, and practicing in that 'vicinity' is not shown, but, presumably, they are not numerous. The court below restricted the skill, attention and prudence required of the physician in this case to such as was exercised by ordinarily skillful and prudent physicians and surgeons in that vicinity, etc. It may be that in any given community, a rural one, sparsely inhabited-there may be only one or two physicians and they may each be utterly incompetent, and be what is popularly termed a 'Quack.' Should the law permit such a one to hold himself out as a member of this learned profession, and invite the confidence and reliance of those suffering from serious injury and ailments, so as to engage his services, and

then, though he is a mere bungler and an ignoramus, an empiric of the lowest degree, allow him to escape liability for his negligence and lack of skill upon the plea that he and his associates in the profession in that community are all of a kind, and none of them has either sense, care or capacity?"

I felt like throwing my hat into the air and saying, "Bully for you, Judge," when I read that decision, because it is so different from the general run of decisions upon the same subject.

The physician who knows he is not qualified to discover all the injuries, or by reason of the lack of appliances or lack of experience, he is unable to treat any peculiar feature of the injury, it is the right of the patient to be apprised of his condition, that he might call in more skilled and more experienced attention and assistance if he so desired.

In another case, and a recent one, demonstrating the same rule, the facts were these:

A man believed that he had inhaled into his lungs the gold crown of one of his teeth, so he went to two physicians and surgeons for treatment. He informed them what he thought he had done, inhaled the gold crown, and was anxious to know what could be done for him.

For the purpose of locating the crown, the defendants applied the X-rays to his person. He was exposed to this device on several different occasions, one or two skiagraphs being taken; but the efforts to locate the crown by this method were unsuccessful. About two weeks subsequent to the application of the X-rays to his person, there appeared upon his back what is termed an "X-ray burn." This was very painful and did not immediately yield to medical treatment, or become wholly healed for a considerable time.

On the theory and claim that the defendants were negligent and unskillful in the application of the X-rays to his person, he brought suit to recover damages.

It developed at the trial that the Xrays were applied for too long a period of time, and that the tube or bulb

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through which the rays are generated was placed too close to the body.

The X-rays were applied from thirty to forty minutes on each occasion, and the tube of the apparatus was placed within two inches of his person in each instance, except one.

The application of the X-rays to the patient was not for the purpose of treating a disease or ailment from which he suffered, but for the purpose of locating, if possible, a foreign substance thought to be in his lungs.

The court decided that the rule which requires physicians and surgeons to exercise such reasonable care and skill as is usually given by physicians and surgeons in good standing, applies to the defendants in the use of the X-rays.

Another case, a little out of the ordinary, which further illustrates the rule as to the requisite care and skill, and which also disclosed the hostility among the regular physicians and surgeons towards those who do not practice according to their school, occurred out in Missouri and was but recently decided by the Supreme Court of that state.

A woman had been ill for more than two months with malarial fever. She also had some stomach trouble and was finally advised to go to an institution of magnetic healing.

She did so, and the "diagnostician" of the institution assigned her to another member of the "staff" for treatment.

She received treatment for several weeks, and at the last treatment the operator placed her on her back on a padded table, put one hand on her stomach and the other hand under her knees, and bent her so that her knees almost touched her breast.

He then placed her on her stomach on the padded table, and put his left hand on the small of her back over her spine, and his right hand under her knees and bent her legs up until she screamed with pain.

These manipulations resulted in the following injuries: The ligaments connecting the backbone and hip bone were. ruptured and torn, and the back and

spine and pelvic organs were permanently injured.

No one was present at the time these injuries were inflicted excepting the operator and the victim, the operator having, a few days prior thereto, directed the sister of the poor woman, who had been accompanying her to the institution, to remain away, stating that the presence of a third person would probably prevent the patient taking the suggestions.

From the moment of the manipulations the woman suffered intensely for weeks, until her physician found it necessary to place her in a paris brace.

Other physicians examined her thoroughly and there was an imposing array of them at the trial. The verdict was for $7500.00 and was affirmed on appeal by the Supreme Court of the state.

The contention of the institution was, that as the action was based solely upon the negligent treatment of the woman, in order to constitute unskillfulness it devolved upon her to show that the kind and manner of treatment adopted was not proper or usual in magnetic healing, and that as she failed to do so, she was not entitled to recover.

The court said if the action was being prosecuted upon the theory that defendants were physicians, or that magnetic healing was one of the recognized professions, there would be more force in this position, but it is not, but upon the ground that they held themselves out as magnetic healers, claiming and pretending to heal and cure all mental and physical ailments and diseases of the human mind and body through some power which they possessed peculiar to themselves.

Nor was it necessary, in order to establish their liability to plaintiff for her injuries, that they should have been, or claimed to be practicing physicians.

As a matter of law, if they undertook to cure her of her maladies, and by the negligence or unskillful treatment of her, either by themselves or their employes, and by reason of such treatment she sustained the injuries sued for, she was entitled to recover damages for the

negligence or unskillful performance of any other kind of contract.

It is a legal truism that any person who is legally responsible for his conduct is liable for all damages suffered by another which are the approximate results of negligence, carelessness, or want of ordinary care; and the reasons which prevail in such cases are much more cogent in the case of the person who deals with health and life instead of property.

So that one who holds himself out as a healer of diseases and accepts employment as such, must be, and is by the law, held to the duty of reasonable skill in the exercise of his vocation.

The law holds him responsible if he does his work unskillfully, although he does the best he can. He takes the risk of the quality or accuracy of his genius or intuitions.

He who holds himself out as a medical expert and accepts employment as a healer of disease, but who relies exclusively for diagnosis and remedies upon some occult influence exerted by him, or some mental intuition received by him when in an abnormal condition, in like manner takes the risk.

Another class of experts are known as "mechanical workers" (bone setters), those who hold themselves out as healers and accept employment as such, without previous training or practice. They take the same kind of risk and are held by the law to the same responsibility. The only difference in the two cases is, the mechanic acts under normal, the medical expert acts under abnormal influence or intuition.

The woman above referred to was injured for life, said all the physicians, and the treatment given her would not have given the relief she sought. They all said that it would shorten her life.

They had no mercy on the magnetic healers, and while the verdict was probably a just one under the circumstances, the case is interesting because it presents another exhibition of how physicians can and do join hands and issues. when it is to their interest to do so.

This branch of the law is so inter

"I have no doubt whatever of your ability to fit yourself at home to pass. any examination that the rest of them can pass. But that is not quite the point. You want to see to it that whatever college you get your diploma from is a college that the State Board of Medical Examiners recognizes as regular. They won't even admit you for examination unless you have graduated at a college. that they have agreed to admit. They shut out a graduate in this city from examination, simply because the high school from which he had graduated previous to entering college was not considered up to the standard. What you want is to become a legal practitioner. Then you can practice what you choose

to.

"It is no evidence that a college is considered regular because it is to be found in Polk's Medical Register. They will receive anything that is paid for. They do not care anything about medica. ethics at all. There are a great many colleges and institutions mentioned in Polk's Register that the Examining Board do not recognize at all.

"The requirements are so different in different states that I would advise you

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to first make up your mind where you are going to settle down, then write to the secretary of the State Board of Medical Examiners and tell them that you are proposing to prepare yourself to appear before them for examination, and you would like to know whether a diploma from such a college would be accepted by them as admitting you to examination.

"I do not think a diploma from the school would admit any one to the Board of Examiners. I like the -school myself, and think that it is just as qualified to prepare any one to practice medicine as any of them. But that is not the point. You want to avoid legal difficulties, and the only way to do it is to obey the requirements of the medical legislation."

T

Medical Trust in Germany.

HEY have in Germany a very powerful trust of physicians. Already twenty thousand physicians are enrolled, and the trust has a clerical force of twenty-five people to attend to the business of the central office.

These physicians are proposing to have everything their own way in Germany. Any city or town that does not come to their terms is put on the blacklist, and no physician that belongs to the trust will serve such town or city.

In one city the mayor advertised for a physician that was needed in the city hospital. The place was an honorable one, the pay satisfactory, but he could get no physician, as his town and his hospital were on the blacklist.

He sued the physicians' organization for damages, for putting his city on the blacklist. But the mayor lost his suit.

The people have nothing to say in Germany, except to submit to the medical profession absolutely. Exactly as it will be in this country in a very few years, if the American Medical Association has its way about it.

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THE FOSTER MOTHER AND CHILD.

OW is the time to be courageous. Midsummer is here, and the "dog days" are approaching. This is your baby's first summer; mayhap his second. He is now subject to an onslaught of a combination of troubles. Teething, bowel disorder, worms; one, or all combined.

Do not "flinch," but "stand pat." Face these ailments. Call a competent nurse. Be deliberate, aim well and you will have your reward. The natural tendency is to recovery, so it is altogether probable that your babe, however sick, will take a turn for the better in a few

days. Then, O, the consolation of time. well spent and duty well done! The approving smile of this dear child is everything to the mother heart.

Do not on any account allow yourself to think of giving up your child in its hour of trial. To send it to a hospital, or return it to the institution, would very largely increase its danger. Collecting together a number of young children in a so-called asylum, is a perilous thing to do at any time, and especially during the heated term.

To be a neighbor in a good neighborhood, is a great privilege. A brother in a brotherhood, ranks still higher. Fatherhood is a step higher yet, while above all and over all, we estimate motherhood to be the greatest and grandest relation that ever existed between mortals.

A careful observation of the various phases of the human family for more than half a century has convinced the writer hereof that, in the final reckoning, when the jewels are made up, the stars in the crown of the foster mother will outnumber those of all other mothers two to one.

"Whoso shall receive one such little child in My name, receiveth Me."-Matt. 18:5

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