174 
POPULAR SCIENCE NEWS. 
[November, 1890. 
n^edicine aijd Pliarniacy. 
SPECIALISM IN MEDICINE. 
The medical specialist is a person of great 
antiquity- In the days of the Greeks and 
Romans, persons who performed operations 
for the removal of calculi from the bladder 
formed a distinct class, and met with remark- 
able success, considering the almost bar- 
barous state of medical science at that period, 
although they doubtless followed a custom 
not entirely unknown at the present day, 
of making little account of the unsuccessful 
operations. The greatest development of 
specialists — that is, physicians who limit their 
practice to the treatment of a certain class 
of diseases only — has occ'urred in quite mod- 
ern times, and the process of subdivision 
seems to be constantly on the increase. . 
The practice of dentistry has long been 
recognized as a distinct branch of minor 
surgery, and the treatment of those important 
organs, the eye and ear, requires an amount 
of special knowledge and skill which the 
general practitioner has usually neither time 
to acquire nor opportunity to make use of. 
The recent advances in gynaicology and 
abdominal surgery have called into existence 
a class of men who have almost performed 
miracles in restoring those to health and 
comfort who would otherwise have wel- 
comed death as a relief from suflering ; and 
specially trained experts in affections of the 
throat, lungs, heart, brain, and, in foct, nearly 
every organ of the bod)', can be found in 
every large city, to say nothing of the nu- 
merous quacks, who assume the naine of 
specialist, and conceal their ignorance of all 
diseases by only attempting the treatment 
of one. 
While the tendency to specialism has been 
deplored by many, it seems to be a legitimate 
result of modern conditions. Our knowledge 
of the various organs of the body and their 
physiological and pathological conditions, 
has increased so greatly that no one indi- 
vidual could possibly fit himself to treat 
every disease demanding exceptional skill in 
the best possible manner, and so few cases 
of this sort would occur in general practice 
that the important element of experience in 
a variety of differing cases would also be 
lacking. 
The obvious danger of specialism is, of 
course, its tendency towards- narrowness, and 
an inclination on the part of the specialist to 
refer all symptoms of disease to affections 
of those organs in which he is most inter- 
ested. This is best counterbalanced by the 
wider, if less thorough experience of the 
general practitioner, who in his turn will 
find in the minute and particular knowledge 
of the specialist an invaluable aid. There is 
room in the profession fo;- both the general 
and special practitioner, and the best interests 
of their patients will be assured by their 
mutual co-operation. 
STATE REGULATION OF MEDICINE. 
The PopuLAii Science News has always 
held the opinion that the attempts at so-called 
"regulation of medical practice" by many 
States were not only a direct violation of nat- 
uial and constitution;d rights, but an utterly 
inefficient means of protection to the citizens 
as well. In our August issue we gave our 
views on this subject, in connection with an 
extract from the Popular Science Monthly 
advancing similar ideas, and also referred to 
an outrageous abuse of power which occinred 
in New York City under cover of the medi- 
cal law of that State. Such abuses are con- 
stantly occurring, and, as showing to what 
lengths State regulation may be caiTied, 
we publish a letter recently received from a 
prominent lawyer in Northern New York, 
which gives a good idea of the possibilities 
of government in a "land of the fiee." 
Gentlemen : I read with interest the article in the 
recent number of 3'our paper on the subject of the 
absurdity of laws to boost up the medical profession, 
and I heartily agree with you. I suppose I have a 
case on hand now, although I am inclined to think 
it is so absurd that the authorities will not press it. 
A certain Dr. R , a regularly licensed physician, 
registered — as he tells me — at Brooklyn, was here 
on other business, and someone who had heard that 
he was skilled as a physician, asked him to examine 
his wife, which he did, and advised her to use lithia 
water. He administered no medicine, but I believe 
he received a small gratuity from the man for his 
time. The matter came to the knowledge of the 
sentinel on duty of the Allopathic and Homoeo- 
pathic Societies here, charged with the execution 
of the doctor law. They had the foreign physician 
arrested, and he had to give bail for his appearance 
at the next term of the grand jury. Of course, in 
this case there is not only the question whether such 
an examination and prescription is a violation of the 
law, but the further one, whether it has any appli- 
cation whatever to a physician who is duly licensed 
and registered at his home, who makes an examina- 
tion and gives advice only, in some other locality 
when on business. Of course, if that is the proper 
construction of the law, then no physician could be 
called in from an adjoining county, even to consult 
with a resident physician, without the filing of the 
requisite paper in the county clerk's office of the 
county where the council was to be held, and that 
altogether regardless of the fact whether or not the 
sick man might not in the meantime be on his way 
to seek a prescription from the ghost of yEsculapius. 
As learning advance , man becomes more liberal in 
everything ; even the clergy have felt the effect of it, 
and no doubt the doctors will soon. 
Yours very truly, 
[Later advices state that the prosecutors will 
insist on bringing this case to trial. — Ed.] 
We notice that a recent law of New Jersey 
prohibits physicians from other States prac- 
ticing their profession within its boundaries. 
A large number of New York physicians 
have thus been cut off from their profitable 
practice at the various summer resorts along 
the coast, and are complaining bitterly at this 
illiberal treatment. While their complaint is 
certainly a just one, we find it difficult to 
sympathize very much with them, in view 
of the circumstances related above, and can- 
not see why a law which they consider just 
and proper in the Empire State, should not 
be equally justifiable when enforced by the 
citizens of New Jersey. 
EXECUTION BY ELECTRICITY. 
The following statement by Dr. E. C. 
Spitzka, of New York, who was present at 
the recent execution of Kemmler, should setl 
at rest all question as to the instantaneousness 
of the death produced by the electric ciu'rent. 
It is not probable that Kemmler suffered the 
slightest pain, or, in fact, any sensation what- 
ever, after the application of the current, and 
a clear, scientific opinion, like that of Dr. 
Spitzka, is of much more value than all the 
columns of sensational rubbish printed in the 
daily papers in connection with the affair. 
The full report is published in the Atlanta 
Medical and Surgical Journal , from which 
we copy the extract given below. 
William Kemmler, executed by means of a West- 
inghouse dynamo, was apparently dead, in the usual 
sense of the word, after the first passage of the 
current. All contrary statements, which, unfortu- 
nately, are sustained by the majority of the physi- 
cians present, rest upon a truly fearful ignorance 
of the most rudimentary physiology, and the usual 
symptoms of death. When the current was sus- 
pended Kemmler remained stationary — in tetanus; 
after a minute the muscular contraction relaxed, and 
collapse of the thorax led to the escape of air 
through the mucus, quite thickly collected in the 
larynx. Careful observation showed that the so- 
called appearance of respiration was nothing other 
than collapse of the air vessels. Pulse was not 
present. That places rendered pale through pres- 
sure again became red could be established an hour 
after the brain, cord and contents of the thorax and 
abdomen had been removed. That bipod flowed 
from the hand, injured through spasmodic contrac- 
tion, and pressure of the nails, is true. So flowed 
blood from every place selected for section, as it 
indeed possessed the noteworthy fluid character, 
which is also observed in cases of accidental death 
from the electric current. 
To the above authoritative opinion we add 
the decisive testimony given in the Atncrican 
Microscopical Journal by Dr. Geouge E. 
Fell, of Buffalo, who planned the death 
chair, and personally adjusted and afterwards! 
examined the contacts of the electrodes, with^ 
other details of the jirocess and result. 
Within twenty seconds after the first application j 
of the current, I could detect no pulse at the wrist.. 
Shortly afterward two or three slight movementsj 
of the chest took place. As to their import, see Dr..! 
Tatum's results on dogs, viz. : "In twenty-one outl 
of twenty-three dogs killed by the application ofl 
electricity, effective respiration survived the finalg 
heart arrest. Fair inspirations were recorded in] 
several cases as long as four or five minutes after] 
the dose, which lasted only one second, but after] 
which the heart had not executed a single beat thati 
could be detected." My own demonstrations proves 
