Opinion, per WANAMAKER, J.

Of late years the doctrine of conservation has received a new impetus in our American system of government. Originally, this doctrine was applied largely to mines, forests, water-power, and our natural resources. Later it was extended to hogs, cattle, buffalo and wild animals generally, and, strange to say, lastly it was applied to human beings. Sanely and sensibly it was argued that life is worth little in the abstract, but must be made effective by the conservation of the health to which that life is entitled.

Man is still the greatest mystery to man. His mind and body are the greatest workshop of the world. The chemical and organic forces, operating in life and in death, in every possible variety of action and reaction, make him the most interesting study of natural science.

Over this wonderful laboratory, Doctor Nature presides. His remarkable management of the human organism, in preserving its orderly functions, is excelled in no other department of the uniIf uninterfered with or unhandicapped by any artificial circumstance or agency, he has within his laboratory the necessary cure for the major part of all the ills that human flesh is heir to.

verse.

As the Great Physician he has charge of this great laboratory that furnishes not only the motor power for all human activity, but likewise the curative agencies for the abnormal conditions that frequently arise from the abuses, excesses and exposures of human life.

The most that any human physician can do by way of cure of human ailments is to aid or facili

Opinion, per WANAMAKER, J.

tate Doctor Nature's general plan. Manifestly, in order to do this, there must be a thorough knowledge of the workings of nature in the various departments of human life, the alimentary, the circulatory, the respiratory, the nervous, and all other departments that coordinate and cooperate in human life.

In order to intelligently and effectively cooperate, the human physician must have equal knowledge with Doctor Nature as to this human laboratory, its chemical and organic ailments, agents, and forces, else they will work to cross-purposes with each other.

This would seem too obvious to require further argument.

In primitive life every man was his own dentist, doctor, lawyer. Why? Because there were no specialists, and one man was about as smart as another. In the course of our civilization and education we came to realize that in many departments of life special knowledge and training were highly necessary, and that the time had gone when any person had the right to assume that he could skillfully exercise the healing art, advertise to such effect, and induce the public to believe he was so qualified, without the slightest evidence of such qualification.

Accordingly the states, now nearly all of them, have adopted a wise and salutary policy, that before persons shall engage in certain occupations that require special expert knowledge, training and experience, and as to which the general public have little or no knowledge, they must qualify before

Opinion, per WANAMAKER, J.

some board especially fitted to test them through some preliminary and appropriate examination, to ascertain their personal fitness to practice such special business or profession, in order to insure the public of their efficiency before securing the public's confidence and the public's cash.

It would seem obvious that in the exercise of the art of healing the human body it would be of primary importance to thoroughly know and understand the human body, its anatomy, physiology, hygiene and chemistry, through acquaintance with the structure of all the different organs of the body, their relation to each other, their several functions, separate and in conjunction with the other organs of the body, in their normal state, so as to be able to determine the nature and extent of any abnormality, which is always at the basis of disease.

It is surely only elementary to say that before one can treat a disease intelligently and efficiently he must know much about the nature and extent of that disease, the organs and parts affected, and even. the cause of that disease. All these things and many more enter into an intelligent, practical and effective treatment.

Every business and science has a language all its own. One of the first terms confronting us in the art of healing is the scientific term "pathology," which relates to the nature, cause, progress and symptoms of a disease. Surely no argument is needed to convince one that such knowledge is highly essential to a proper diagnosis; that is, the determination of the particular disease or ailment from which the patient is suffering. After de

Opinion, per WANAMAKER, J.

termining such disease, then comes the application of the appropriate remedy.

As to pathology there should be no substantial dispute between any of the different schools of the healing art. It deals with the objective analysis, a survey of the human body and its ailments or diseased organs and parts. Likewise as to the diagnosis of the signs or symptoms, internal or external, connected with the diseased condition. These also are largely objective and the result of scientific survey. We next come naturally to the science of therapeutics, which relates to the discovery, selection and application of the remedies for diseases. As to this field of medical science there have been in times past very serious scholastic controversies, but, as with the sectarian differences in the various churches, so in medical science, there has been a gradual liberalizing and yielding of former intense partisan and scholastic differences to the more practical test, "By their fruits, ye shall know them."

If there be that thorough, scientific and practical knowledge of pathology, and that skilled scientific knowledge of diagnosis, then the state may safely leave the choice of remedy or cure very largely to the judgment of the practitioner. At least, his expert knowledge, derived from experience and education, should best fit him to make that choice, and a wise application of the remedy.

But, obviously, as to these two major essentials of professional equipment, the state should set its standards high, so as to abundantly protect the pub

Opinion, per WANAMAKER, J.

lic from the mistakes of ignorance, however well intentioned, from charlatanism, from professional quackery, however garbed in alluring advertisement, and from all those who would prostitute their profession to a profiteering basis.

Manifestly, before this scientific knowledge of the human body can be properly acquired, there must be some preliminary educational qualifications of a general nature. In mathematical science one does not study geometry before the multiplication tables. One does not study chemistry before mathematics. A solid and adequate foundation in the nature of the substructure is as essential in the building of an education as it is in the building of a block.

It is absurd for anyone to say that you can develop and train a rude hod-carrier, with comparatively no education, to become a skilled physician or surgeon, in the same time that you can a college man with the same natural endowments.

The Medical Practice Act of Ohio recognizes the necessity of these preliminary qualifications, and before entering upon the study of the art of healing the general assembly by Section 1270 of the Medical Practice Act has wisely provided:

"The following preliminary educational credentials shall be sufficient:

"A diploma from a reputable college granting the degree of A. B., B. S., or equivalent degree.

"A diploma from a legally constituted normal school, high school or seminary, issued after four years of study: