and became a Fellow of the Royal Society. He came home equipped with learning and letters of such weight that his undertaking received ready support, and he was appointed to the Chair of Medicine. Dr. William Shippen, one of his former associates in Europe, and a graduate of the University of New Jersey (now Princeton) was appointed Professor of Anatomy. Dr. Bond, of the Pennsylvania Hospital, was appointed to lecture on Clinical Medicine. We have already mentioned Dr. Bond's and Dr. Shippen's previous work in their respective lines. Dr. Morgan during his long and careful preparation of fifteen years had in mind the founding of a medical school. This is a fine example of tenacity of purpose accompanied by thorough preparation. Dissensions arising during the Revolution caused the establishment of rival colleges, but finally, in 1791, they were united as the University of Pennsylvania, with such famous men as Shippen, Rush, Adam Kuhn, Bond, etc., on the Faculty, Dr. Morgan having died before he could assume his duties in the united Faculties. The Medical Department of King's College (later Columbia) was founded in 1768, and broken up by the Revolution. The College of Physicians and Surgeons was founded in 1807 by the Trustees of the University of New York, and finally the Medical Departments of Columbia and University of New York were united in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, in 1811. Harvard Medical College was founded in 1783, by Dr. John Warren, a Revolutionary surgeon of great will and industry, a brother of Dr. Joseph Warren, who fell at Bunker Hill. Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse, already mentioned, and famous as the American Jenner, was the first Professor of Medicine. His nature and European education gave him an air of pedantry, which is humorously described by Dr. Holmes, who says, in speaking of the text books of the time: "Dr. Waterhouse would naturally refer his students to the learned Gaubrus, the voluminous Von Swieten, the illustrious Boerhaave. The excellent Dr. Fothergill was his uncle; the immortal Jenner was his second creator; and their names were often on his lips." The Medical Department of Dartmouth was founded in 1798, and Dr. Nathan Smith was for many years its only Professor. PACIFIC MEDICAL JOURNAL WINSLOW ANDERSON, A. M., M. D., M. R. C. P. LOND., etc. EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. W. F. SOUTHARD, A. M., M. D., Managing Editor. COLLABORATORS. U. F. BUCKLEY, B.A., M.D., L.R.C.P.Edin.. etc. GEO. C. MACDONALD, M.D., F.R C.S,Ed. W. E. TAYLOR, M.D. W. S. THORNE, M.D. WILLIAM S. WHITWELL, A.M., M.D. W L. ADAMS, M.D. CARL C. HANSEN, M.D. GEORGE H. POWERS, A.M., M.D. JOHN W. ROBERTSON, A.B., M.D. C. A. RUGGLES, M.D. THOS. MORFFEW, D.D.S. FRANK HOWARD PAYNE, M,D. A. W. MORTON, A.B., M.D. CHAS. E. JONES, A.B., M.D. WM. J. JACKSON, Ph.G., M.D. WM. A. BRYANT, M.D., D.D.S, WALTER F. LEWIS, D.D.S. A. SCHLOSS, M.D. GEORGE P. WINTERMUTE, M.D. H. N. ROWELL, M.D. J. J. CROWLEY, Ph.G. SOPHIE B. KOBICKE, M.D. LOLITA B DAY, M.D. ROBERT E. O'CONNELL, D.D.S. CHAS. W. MILLS, A.B, M.D., D.D.S. C. M. TROPPMANN. Ph.G., M.D. WILLIAM BURFIEND, D.D.S. JOHN M. STOWELL, M.D. BERTHA WAGNER-STARK, M.D. J. H. SEYMOUR, M.D. CALVIN W. KNOWLES, D.D.S., M.D. CORYDON B. ROOT, M.D., D.D.S. J. C. HENNESSEY, D.D.S. A. F. MERRIMAN, JR., D.D.S. The Editors are not responsible for the views of contributors. All matters relating to the editorial and business departments should be addressed to the PACIFIC MEDICAL JOURNAL, 1025 Sutter St., San Francisco. SAN FRANCISCO, MARCH, 1903. Editorial. MEDICAL LEGISLATION. The proposed amendment to the State Medical Law in the shape of Senate bill No. 365, seems at this writing to have more than a fair chance of passing both houses. This proposed amendment is a very concise affair; clear and direct in its meaning, and proposes nothing to which any fair minded man should object. It does one thing, and one thing only. It takes from the medical societies the power to appoint the Board of Medical Examiners, and places this power in the hands of the Governor. We have given already in former editorials many and sufficient reasons for desiring this change in the medical law. There is no legitimate argument in favor of any other measure. Those who are so vigorously exerting themselves to prevent any changes in the present law have only one argument to give, and that is that the board should be kept out of politics. Such an argument is a mere subterfuge. These gentlemen evidently wish to convey the impression that all politics are bad excepting medical politics, and that if the appointing of this board is left in the hands of the State societies, good men only will be appointed, and bad men and politicians relegated to obscurity. It is true National politics are at times corrupt, State politics are not always as pure as sunshine, ward and city politics are now and then bad, but if anyone can find anywhere politics more detestable, more rotten than the medical politics of this State, he will have a long search into modern and ancient history before his discovery is accomplished. The ward, the county, and the State politics of this State are solemn and saintly as compared to the medical politics. The ten or twelve men who run the Medical Societies of this State have entered into a scheme to control the licensing of medical practitioners for the building up of certain medical schools and the crushing of others. A few selected medical colleges in this State are behind the scheme, and the intention as evidenced by the acts of the Board is not only to ruin other medical schools in this State, but to bring into disrepute medical schools outside of this State, so that any one wishing to practice medicine in the State of California must march up to the rack and deposit his money in one of these selected institutions, after which time he can depend upon securing a license. This is a bad state of affairs. The appointment of this Medical Board should be in the hands of the Governor, who is elected by the people. This Board should be responsible to the Governor, and when it does not act squarely and honestly it can be investigated. It is the one Board in the State that is above Government control and that is not appointed by the Governor. It is elected by men and women voting not under oath, and who are not required to be, and in some instances are not citizens of this State. The members of this Board do not have to be. citizens of the State under the present law. The State Board, owing to its gross unfairness, has proven itself not worthy to be trusted with such important powers. There are on the Board, however, two or three members whose intentions probably are good, but who are as devoid of backbone as is a snail, and rather than to excite a little controversy in the Board itself they will submit to any kind of injustice, and by silence sanction any degree of wrong. Of the nine subjects in which candidates are examined to obtain a license to practice in the State of California, four of these subjects were taken by one man during recent examinations of the present Board. In other words, nearly half of all the examinations were passed upon personally by one man, so that it was within his power to pass or reject any and all candidates. This power he evidently used in favor of some and against others. By comparing the examination papers of the candidates that passed with others that were rejected, we find that if there is any difference in the answers given it is in favor of those who were rejected. The examinations should be conducted without the examiners knowing the candidates. The law so expressly provides. During the recent examinations held we have men who are willing to swear that their identity was asked instead of being known by a number. The candidate was asked from what school he graduated. All these and many other unfair practices would be abolished by having an independent Board selected from the great body of medical practitioners of the State of California, now numbering over 4,500. Small cliques and self-constituted medical societies should not have the legal power to appoint a judicial Board. This should be done, as it is in the case of all other State Boards, by the Chief Executive, who is sworn to administer the laws according to the Constitution and laws of the State. No fair-minded man on an Examining Board would ask catch questions and unknown questions such as "Cryoscopy," and "Hanot's disease of the liver." Independent examiners would try to ascertain what a candidate knew, and not try to bulldoze a medical man by asking questions that not one in a thousand of the medical men throughout the world knows anything about. It hardly seems fair to prevent a medical man of twenty years' practice coming to California from New York, Pennsylvania or Illinois, because he cannot pass a student's examinations, yet such was the case with recent examinations held by the present State Board of Medical Examiners. The medical profession in this State is not a trust excluding We want a greater laymen, and a pro practitioners from our golden shores. population here, physicians as well as hibitive exclusion act of this kind is non-American, class legislation and unfair. For these and many other reasons we believe it is to the best interest of the State and to the best interests of the medical profession that an independent Board be selected by an independent Governor, and that 'the appointing power of the Board of Medical Examiners shall not be restricted to a few self-consituted medical cliques. ORIENTAL DWELLERS IN SAN FRANCISCO. San Francisco's Chinatown is located in the very center of a most populous portion of the city, bounded by Pacific street on the north, Montgomery and Kearny on the east, California street on the south, and Stockton street on the west. There are seven or eight squares here which could be advantageously turned into a public park. Orientals living in a foreign country are apt to carry their customs, domestic and commercial, with them wherever they go. The cubic air law is invariably violated. As their former domiciles were small and occupied by many persons, so they carry out their ideas of economy in San Francisco. The Chinese themselves are not a filthy people. They are a great deal cleaner in their persons and in their dwellings than many poor white people from Europe. The Chinese, however, love to crowd together, and live in small, badly ventilated apartments, and with their superstitions and religious ideas they do infringe upon the laws of sanitation. Personally, a Chinaman's body is found to be much more clean than is the rule with the inhabitants of a few squares north of San Francisco's Chinatown and the inhabitants of a half dozen squares south of San Francisco's Chinatown. The liability, however, of the Chinese to Oriental diseases from their traveling companions, and from the importation of goods, would seem to render it advisable to establish quarters for the Chinese population in San Francisco away from the thickly populated portion. The new dwellings should be erected under the supervision of sanitary inspectors. The cubic air ordinance and sanitary regulations in general should be |