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Opinion of the Court.

of the laws, and to the implied limitation that every exercise of the power must be reasonable. Police Powers, Freund, sec. 63; Rideout v. Knox, 148 Mass., 368; Lawton v. Steele, 152 U. S., 133; Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U. S., 537; Wisconsin M. & P. R. R. Co. v. Jacobson, 179 U. S., 287, and Dobbins v. Los Angeles, 195 U. S., 223.

That the practice of medicine may be regulated by legislation has been decided in every court in which the question has arisen. In the leading case, Dent v. West Virginia, 129 U. S., 114, 122, Mr. Justice Fields

says:

"The power of the state to provide for the general welfare of its people authorizes it to prescribe all such regulations as, in its judgment, will secure, or tend to secure them against the consequences of ignorance and incapacity as well as of deception and fraud. As one means to this end it has been the practice of different states, from time immemorial, to exact in many pursuits a certain degree of skill and learning upon which the community may confidently rely, their possession being generally ascertained upon an examination of parties by competent persons, or inferred from a certificate to them in the form of a diploma or license from an institution established for instruction on the subjects, scientific and otherwise, with which such pursuits have to deal. The nature and extent of the qualifications required must depend primarily upon the judgment of the state as to their necessity. If they are appropriate to the calling or profession, and attainable by reasonable study or application, no objection to their validity can be raised because of their stringency or difficulty. It is only when they have no relation to

Opinion of the Court.

such calling or profession, or are unattainable by such reasonable study and application, that they can operate to deprive one of his right to pursue a lawful vocation.

"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."

And again: "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 practice 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

Opinion of the Court.

designated by the state as competent to judge of his qualifications."

But it is said the offering of prayer to God for the recovery of the sick is not against public health or public morals or public safety or public welfare. Admitted. But is that a correct statement of the case? If the defendant prayed for the recovery of Hehl that was the treatment he gave him for the cure of his rheumatism and for which Hehl paid him. He was practicing healing or curing disease. To assume that legislation may be directed only against the administering of drugs or the use of the knife is to take a too narrow view. The subject of the legislation is not medicine and surgery. It is the public health or the practice of healing. The state might make it an offense, as has been done in New York (People v. Pierson, 176 N. Y., 201), for any one to omit to furnish medical attendance to those dependent upon him, and at the same time leave him at liberty to die in any manner he may choose. But this is not all. While the state may not deem it wise to go to the extent of requiring the individual to avail himself of the services of a physician, yet it may not wish to hasten his death and so to transfer to itself the burden of supporting those dependent upon him by making it possible for him to employ an empiric. Again where there is an infectious or contagious disease the public welfåre may be vitally affected by a failure promptly to recognize it, and so the state is interested in permitting to practice the art of healing only those possessing recognized qualifications. So that, regarding disease rather than the treatment of it as the subject of the legislation, it is not necessary that the

Opinion of the Court.

statute be preventive of particular practices, but it may make the right to undertake the treatment of disease dependent upon the possession of reasonable qualifications.

It is next contended "that Christian Science is a recognized system or school of healing, and that the statute is unconstitutional, on the ground that it discriminates against Christian Science, or in favor of certain schools of medicine; that different requirements are made of those who use drugs or medicines, of surgeons, and of osteopaths who use no medicines or drugs, but that the Christian Scientist who uses nothing must take the same examination as the regular practitioner, in other words, must understand the use of drugs and medicines, none of which, according to his system, does he ever use. That under the statute the osteopath is given a certificate to practice the healing art according to his system of treatment, without passing an examination before the state board in the subjects of pathology, chemistry and therapeutics, the principles and practice of medicine and surgery. That Christian Science entirely excludes drugs and all material methods of treatment, and relies solely upon prayer as a means for the relief or cure of the sick. Upon what possible theory of justice and equality can the Christian Scientist be required to pass an examination in a half dozen different subjects, which are not required of the osteopath, when these subjects have no relation to the practice of Christian Science and are even further removed from that method of the healing art than they are from the practice of osteopathy? Neither the law nor the rules of the board of medical registration and examination contain any

Opinion of the Court.

provisions for ascertaining the attainments of the Christian Scientist who might apply for a certificate to practice his system of healing. The record shows that there is no member of the board qualified to examine a Christian Scientist and no committee or other means for examination has been provided."

If we are correct in the conclusion that disease, and not the method of its treatment, is the subject of the legislation, then it is putting the cart before the horse to say that every school of healing must be recognized. That the legislature, in its wisdom, might prescribe a uniform examination, we do not doubt, and that it may recognize one school without recognizing all, is also true, if the recognition be in the exercise of proper classification and for the public welfare, and not with a view to create a monopoly in the schools recognized or a discrimination against other schools. Parks v. The State, 159 Ind., 211; The State ex rel. Kellog v. Currens et al., 111 Wis., 431; Scholle v. State, 90 Md., 729.

The act under consideration in The State of Ohio v. Gravett, supra, was held void as discriminating against osteopaths because in order to obtain a certificate to practice, limited so that they might not prescribe drugs or perform surgery, they were required to hold diplomas from schools requiring a longer period of study than was required of those for unlimited certificates. The present act, or sections 4403c (94 O. L., 198) and 4403ƒ (95 O. L., 212) make no such discrimination. It provides that no person shall practice medicine and surgery or midwifery without first complying with the requirements of the act. Then it exempts persons entitled

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