326 STATE AND THE MEDICAL PROFESSION xiii 



tor's stuff " and advice from the chemist and drug- 

 gist round the corner, who has not paid sixpence 

 for his medical training, because he has never 

 had any. 



The general practitioner thinks this is very 

 hard upon him and ought to be stopped. It is 

 perhaps natural that he should think so, though 

 it would be very difficult for him to justify his 

 opinion on any ground of public policy. But the 

 question is really not worth discussion, as it is ob- 

 vious that it would be utterly impracticable to 

 stop the practice " over the counter " even if it 

 were desirable. 



Is a man who has a sudden attack of pain 

 in tooth or stomach not to be permitted to go to 

 the nearest druggist's shop and ask for something 

 that will relieve him? The notion is preposterous. 

 But if this is to be legal, the whole principle of the 

 permissibility of counter practice is granted. 



In my judgment the intervention of the State 

 in the afl'airs of the medical profession can be jus- 

 tified not upon any ])retence of protecting the pub- 

 lic, and still less upon that of protecting tlie med- 

 ical profession, but simply and solely upon the fact 

 that the State employs medical men for certain 

 purposes, and, as employer, has a right to define 

 the conditions on which it will accept service. It 

 is for the interest of the community that no person 

 shall die without there being some official recogni- 

 tion of tlie cause of his death. It is a matter of 



