Protective Association ORGANIZED AT WINNIPEG, 1901 Under the Auspices of the Canadian Medical Association HE objects of this Association are to unite the profession of the Dominion for mutual help and protection against unjust, improper or harassing cases of malpractice brought against a member who is not guilty of wrong-doing, and who frequently suffers owing to want of assistance at the right time; and rather than submit to exposure in the courts, and thus gain unenviable notoriety, he is forced to endure blackmailing. The Association affords a ready channel where even those who feel that they are perfectly safe (which no one is) can for a small fee enrol themselves and so assist a professional brother in distress. Experience has abundantly shown how useful the Association has been since its organization. The Association has not lost a single case that it has agreed to defend. The annual fee is only $2.50 at present, payable in January of each year. The Association expects and hopes for the united support of the profession. We have a bright and useful future if the profession will unite and join our ranks. EXECUTIVE. President-R. W. POWELL, M.D., Ottawa. Vice-President J. O. CAMARIND, M.D., Sherbrooke. SOLICITOR F. H. CHRYSLER, K.C., Ottawa, Send fees to the Secretary-Treasurer by Express Order, Money Order, Postal Note or Registered letter. If cheques are sent please add commission. PROVINCIAL EXECUTIVES. ONTARIO E. E. Kin, Toronto; I. Olmsted. Hamilton; D. H. Arnott, London; J. C. Connell, Kingston; J. D. Courtenay, Ottawa. QUEB C-F. Buller, Montreal; E. P. Lachapelle, Montreal; J. E. Dube, Montreal; H. R. Ross, Quebec; Russell Thomas, Lennoxville. NEW BRUNSWICK-T. D. Walker, St. John: A. B. Atherton, Fredericton; Murray MacLaren, St. John. NOVA SCOTIA-John Stewart, Halifax; J. W. T. Patton, Truro; H. Kendall, Sydney. PINCE EDWARD ISLAND-S. R. Jenkins, Charlottetown. MANITOBA - Harvey Smith, Winnipeg; J. A. MacArthur, Winnipeg; J. Hardy, Morden. NORTH-WEST TERRITORIES-J. D. Lafferty, Calgary; M. Seymour, Regina. BRITISH COLUMBIA-S. J. Tunstall, Vancouver; O. M. Jones, Victoria; A. P. McLennan, Nelson. Published on the 15th of each month. Address all Communications and make all Cheques, Post Office Orders and Postal Notes payable to the Publisher, GEORGE ELLIOTT, 203 Beverley St., Toronto, Canada. VOL. XXV. TORONTO, OCTOBER, 1905. No. 4. COMMENT FROM MONTH TO MONTH. Dr. R. A. Reeve, Dean of the Medical Faculty of the University of Toronto, has been elected by his confreres of the Local Branch of the British Medical Association, to the office of President of that august body for 1906. The choice is a happy and in every way a satisfactory one. Ever kind, always courteous, a model man to fashion deportment by, Dr. Reeve will bring to the office all the requisites of a popular presiding officer; and under his wise, earnest, pacific administration, the annual meeting in Toronto next year will be assured a pronounced success. In every way his hands will be supported loyally, and it is safe to say the working out of the details of arrangement for the reception of visitors and their entertainment, will be carried along with vim and enthusiasm, when all know that a gentleman of the finest calibre commands. Every officer elected, as well as every one not an officer, will feel it incumbent upon him that the occasion will demand something of him, and each and every one will be sure to contribute something towards the success of the meeting in whatever way he may be called upon to contribute. The other day in the Toronto Police Court the presiding. magistrate in hearing a case for the collection of wages due, stated every man was entitled to what he earned. The thought or statement, which is only a rational and equitable one, should be wafted into that court where once in a while a physician is called upon to sue a delinquent debtor, so that the wisdom of the remark might permeate through and through the presiding officer therein. It is well known that physicians do a great deal of work for which they are never paid; and that now and again, where just claims are prosecuted, they are not always successful. The practice of medicine is a profession wherein its members dare not seek for work in the open market. Physicians cannot prosecute a commercial business nor ply a trade, and in all cases. their services are asked for, and consequently should be recompensed accordingly. So patent is this that there is absolutely no exception to the rule that the services of all physicians are engaged by their patients, and so long as such patients keep the engagement intact of their own accord, these selfsame services should be paid for accordingly. It seems too bad, then, when a physician does take action in a court of law that his action is not always sustained. There can be no other moral law than the right to every dollar that every man earns regardless of what trade or profession he belongs to, and people who engage a physician should be made to pay that physician when required to.. The Toronto Globe recently delivered itself of a very cómmendable article on the good physician, particularly as he has been known for a great many years in Toronto East. The occasion was one which led to some very fine sentiments from the pen of the editor of one of the foremost newspapers on this continent. No one in the medical profession can quarrel with these sentiments, although it is a well-known fact amongst the members of this profession that a great deal of humanitarian work is done annually wherever a physician breathes the breath of life. We are not flashing this from any tower. All we wish to do is to say that the medical profession will appreciate this testimonial that its aims are not all harsh, nor mencenary. We believe, however, that there is a great deal of misplaced charity, and our inability often to separate the chaff from the wheat militates against the profession of medicine financially. In general the public does not appreciate this. They think that there it not much difference in treating a poor man who is not able to pay for nothing, and another man who is able to pay for the same service. If, they say, my doctor treats John Jones, who is a poor man, for nothing, why should I pay, when I am only a little better off in this world's goods than John Jones, and so on and forever. In fact, the financial part of the practice of medicine has resolved itself into this, that if a patient does not choose to pay his doctor in a year or two the account is overlooked, and the doctor goes on his way looking for pastures new and green. There is no question then that we are doing ourselves and our families a great injustice. If it remained at that, all might be well and good; we would not be doing any injustice to our neighbors. But is this so? When a doctor arrives at that time in the practice of medicine when he can afford to allow the financial end of his profession to drift or look after itself; when he takes what he gets from patients and never asks them for any more, we would like to ask is he dealing righteously and honestly by his brother practitioner who is often young, and often requires the money. This very point will sooner or later call for a revision of ethics, because the past order of things is passing away, and a new order with some commercial sentiment incorporated is approaching. Most people have a very crude understanding of the ways and purposes of hospitals, and if the medical profession ever undertakes to enlighten them concerning them, the latter generally get fibrillary twitchings. There is a certain proportion of the community which believes that the word hospital means free bed, free board, free room rent, and above all free medicine and free doctor's attendance. It is sometimes necessary, though sad and painful, to enlighten these people. Of all things connected with the word hospital, the most fixed delusion is that you can get accommodation-or ought to get accommodation-in these institutions, a bed to yourself, a whole ward to yourself, with a nurse or two thrown in-and especially and most important of all-your doctor's attendance for the rate you pay to the hospital per week. It is remarkable that intelligent men, and the more intelligent they are, the worse they are, in all walks of life, in law, in religion, in education, in agriculture, are full of the idea that to go to the hospital means that you do not have to pay the doctor who attends you in such institution. In their poor benighted bosoms they have the idea that the hospital pays the doctor or, at least, he gets his fee from the government, but they never mention upon which government the poor doctor is to graft. Why should doctors, then, treat the paupers of any com- munity or municipality, when such ideas are grounded in the feelings of that community? They evidently believe that it is morally right for the doctor to be paid for his trouble by the hospital or the government. Such being the case should not every municipality pay for the treatment of its own indigent sick? The patent medicine industry in the United States these days. is getting some pretty hard knocks. High class periodicals in New York and Philadelphia refuse their advertisements, and are not content with so doing. They ceaselessly wage a war upon the nefarious and dangerous trade in nostrums. But by far the greatest blow yet struck, a veritable solar plexus punch, is that just dealt by the Internal Revenue Department of the United States Government. This department has sent out official notices that on and after December 1st, 1905, all patent medicines containing a considerable proportion of alcohol-and most of them do will be classed as spirituous liquors, and will be subject to the rules and regulations applicable to spirits under the Internal Revenue laws. Under the new regulations it will be impossible to obtain these preparations from dealers, as the sale of spirituous liquors are not permitted. Canada cannot too soon follow suit. News Items. THERE were 2,200 deaths in Ontario during August. DR. KANE, of Gananoque, has located in Sturgeon Falls. Dr. Robert AGNEW, of Clinton, has left for Innisfail, Alta. THERE were 497 births in Toronto in September and 309 deaths. DR. LAPTHORN SMITH, Montreal, has returned from a trip to England. THERE were forty-two cases of typhoid fever in Toronto in September. SINCE the beginning of 1905 there have been 275 births in Kingston, Ont., and 286 deaths. DR. RIDDELL, Crystal City, Man., and formerly medical health officer of Manitoba, is dead. |