Southern Medical and Surgical Journal - Georgia Regents University

502 Editorial [Marchwhere, after conference and discussion, a concerted movementmay be inaugurated to relieve the present dependenceaud restore lost influence. It is to further thisobject that, at our solicitation, the article upon the "LegalStatus of the Profession" has been prepared. Many,doubtless, will be astonished at the exposition, and receivethe first intimation of the fact that they not onlyhave no legal rights, but by practicing for "fee orreward," without a license, are openly violating oneof the statutes of the State, thereby incurring thedouble risk of a loss of their earnings and of acriminalprosecution, the penalty of which is fine and imprisonment.As stated in the article referred to, all physiciansof the rational school of medicine not inpractice on 1stJanuary, 1863, under a legal diploma, are debarred by lawfrom the collectionof claims, and while those who havebeen thus engaged between the adoption of the Code(1862) and March 6th, 1866, are relieved from the penaltiesof the offence against the law, yet they are equallypowerless to enforce payment. The possession of a diplomaconfers no right to practice for fee or reward withinthe limits of this State, unless the possessor be a graduateof a Medical College having the right in its charter toinvest its graduates with all the rights and privilegesof a licentiate under the law. All of the Colleges are notclothed with this authority, and, as a public journalist, itis our duty to apprise the profession of the fact.Of thegraduates of last year, only those of the Medical Collegeof Georgia, now or since practicing in the State, without alicense from the Medical Board legally established, areauthorized so to do. Where the charter does not givethe vested right, a license from an Examining Board,which does not really exist, is, in the terms of the law,necessary to prevent prosecution, and indispensable to thecollection of debts.Physicians coming into the State are