Vol. 60, 1909 - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

294 THE CHARLOTTE MEDICAL JOURNAL.
the ej-e of the public, but the body of the to the purity and healthfulness of that fu- (
profession has but small part in this iliumi- ture he is pledged.
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nation. Each doctor, it is true, bears his The Duly of Organization.—To be able to ;J
own torch, but it is as though the world is find fault with and to discover new duties j
dotted with lightning bugs. When they for an already over-worked and certainly .
should be, as it were, great dynamos or under-paid profession is an easy task, the .]
electric search lights, or even the biograph question as to how the purposeful doctor j
conveying the energy or the light or the may be able to do these things brings me to |
many-sided truths of the incomparable my last point, the greatest duty he owes his j
science of health. With knowledge even municipality, i.e., to get nearer to his pro- j
from the Garden of Eden came grave re- fessional brethren in more active, effective ,(
sponsibilities and the doctor, more than organization than has been his habit hith- \
others, accepted the charge as the keeper erlo. The local medical society which )
of his brother. Then his educated mind heretofore has been more or less of a purand
tongue and pen should be used in the poseless farce, must come to be the forum
broadest way for the benefit of his fellow- where the discussion will not simply be
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men. stuff, cribbed from some ancient authority
Duly of Protest Against Social Crime.— and worked over, l)ut pointed, definite
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In addition to matters of a purely medical essays designed for publication, with pur- \
nature, upon the medical profession there pose in every line.
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rests in a peculiar way the solution, if solu- Results the Touchstone.—Our day is a day ,^
tion there be, of the great social evil, and of deeds rather than of words, and "results" '
the checking of the tide of young men and form the touchstone of every activity, so i
boys who yearly by the thousand dash the perfunctory and ill-atlended local medi- '
themselves to pieces on the breakers that cal society meeting must give way to defi- .:
girdle the cave of the scarlet woman. Who nite business-like sessions, in which com- i
IS to sound the note of warning if the doc- mittee work before hand shall have reduced i
tor does not? Who knows like he the needs matters for discussion to workable shape, i
of the hour? What higher service can one Details.—There should be a Hoard of i
perform to his municipality than to stand Health committee to keep the society in i
as a bulwark against the overwhelming touch with that body, backing it up with I
ignorance and heedlessness that wrecks so active aid or with the not less important i
many men and leaves our girls and women constructive criticism. And then, too, if .
at the mercy of ills, the origin and end of the local society really means to measure ,
which take hold on hell itself. up fully to its duty to the municipality it
Duty to Discriminate in Regard to Profes- must have a wise and very alert publicity :
sional Secrecy.—And here let me deplore the committee to edit and place before the pub- ]
misapplication of that principle of ethics in lie in the daily press, matters under dis- i
the code which seals the lips of a doctor to cussion which the public should know. «
the undoing of the innocent marital victim The doctor has blamed and laughed at the
of a conscienceless libertine. This rule of people for their ignorance of things mediabsolute
secrecy under any and all circuui- cal, and yet no steps have been taken by
stances, however virtuously conceived, has the profession at large to enlighten them,
served in innumerable instances to foster Let it be done authoritatively and systemunchastity
in men and women, who know- atically through a publicity committee,
ing that the knowledge of the consequences Duty of Study.—This business-like comof
their impure practices would remain for- mittee plan should likewise be applied sevever
locked in the breast of the physician, eral meetings in advance in connection with
went out from his office to spread the miasm topics for special study, and let it be study,
of their presence into homes of innocence not a farce. The life of the people lies :
and purit3^ If it is right at the demand of the hand of the doctor; surely he should
the law for the doctor to unbosom himself give his best thought and study to the most
of the secrets of men, are there not times approved methods of treatment; he is not
when the highest law, the inner light from doing his duty to his people if he does not
God, authorizes, naj', demands a loosening use the opportunity afforded by his society
of his lips? The medical profession meeting for keeping in touch with the rapid
must purge itself from these time-worn advance in the healing art which the world'
and suspicious alliances with condi- of thought and investigation lays at his
tions that tend only to the destruction of door. The "Regular" says "all methods
civilization's most cherished institutions, for the cure of disease are mine to be used
namely, the family and the home, the doc- for the healing of mankind," and yet be
tor is no farther confessor, but a man whose frequently passes by many remedial agents
responsibilities reach into the future of the without a look. What does the average
race while that race Walks this earth, and doctor know about psycotherapeutics? The