Medical Jurisprudence, Forensic medicine and Toxicology. Vol. 1Witthaus, R. A. (Rudolph August)
Science
Medical Jurisprudence, Forensic medicine and Toxicology. Vol. 1
Witthaus, R. A. (Rudolph August)
Medical jurisprudence; Poisons; Toxicology
“Few professions require more careful preparation by one who seeks
to enter it than that of medicine. It has to deal with all those
subtle and mysterious influences upon which health and life depend,
and requires not only a knowledge of the properties of vegetable and
mineral substances, but of the human body in all its complicated
parts, and their relation to each other, as well as their influence
upon the mind. The physician must be able to detect readily the
presence of disease, and prescribe appropriate remedies for its
removal. Every one may have occasion to consult him, but comparatively
few can judge of the qualifications of learning and skill which he
possesses. Reliance must be placed upon the assurance given by his
license, issued by an authority competent to judge in that respect,
that he possesses the requisite qualifications. Due consideration,
therefore, for the protection of society, may well induce the State to
exclude from practice those who have not such a license, or who are
found upon examination not to be fully qualified. The same reasons
which control in imposing conditions, upon compliance with which the
physician is allowed to practise in the first instance, may call for
further conditions as new modes of treating disease are discovered, or
a more thorough acquaintance is obtained of the remedial properties
of vegetable and mineral substances, or a more accurate knowledge
is acquired of the human system and of the agencies by which it is
affected. It would not be deemed a matter for serious discussion that
a knowledge of the new acquisitions of the profession, as it from time
to time advances in its attainments for the relief of the sick and
suffering, should be required for continuance in its practice, but
for the earnestness with which the plaintiff in error insists that,
by being compelled to obtain the certificate required, and prevented
from continuing in his practice without it, he is deprived of his right
and estate in his profession without due process of law. We perceive
nothing in the statute which indicates an intention of the legislature
to deprive one of any of his rights. No one has a right to practise
medicine without having the necessary qualifications of learning and
skill; and the statute only requires that whoever assumes, by offering
to the community his services as a physician, that he possesses such
learning and skill, shall present evidence of it by a certificate or
license from a body designated by the State as competent to judge of
his qualifications. As we have said on more than one occasion, it may
be difficult, if not impossible, to give to the terms ‘due process
of law’ a definition which will embrace every permissible exertion
of power affecting private rights and exclude such as are forbidden.
They come to us from the law of England, from which country our
jurisprudence is to a great extent derived, and their requirement
was there designed to secure the subject against the arbitrary
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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