CONTENTS.

THE N. Y. STATE MEDICAL SOCIETY AND THE CODE OF

Resolutions and Explanation

ETHICS....

Action taken by Kings County Society.

Instructions to Delegates rescinded

Discussion in Committee of the Whole....

Page

229

230

231

233

234

Proposition to abolish the New Code for no Code... 239

Tabular Analysis of the Vote by Ayes and Noes... 247

Acetum Opii, Vinegar of Opium, Black Drop.

Acetum Scillæ, Vinegar of Squill..

250

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Illustration of the use of "parts by weight,"..

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THE DISCUSSION ON MEDICAL ETHICS.

This discussion, so important to the general interests of the medical profession at large, has become so warm in this State that it may be useful to try to temper it a little by giving emphasis by repetition to some of the more dispassionate views of those who look upon us from without, and see us perhaps more nearly as we should see ourselves.

The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal of February 15th has an able leading editorial article, which, though widely known through the large circulation of that journal, will certainly do the more good the oftener it is repeated within reasonable limits. The Massachusetts State Medical Society had two able delegates present at the late meeting of the N. Y. State Society, and if they performed the duty of carrying home what they saw and heard, this editorial may possibly have been one of the results, as before that time the journal had been silent on the subject. The editorial is as follows:

THE MEETING OF THE NEW YORK STATE MEDICAL SOCIETY AND ITS CODE OF ETHICS.

The New York State Medical Society, at its recent meeting, confirmed its action of last year with regard to the rejection of the Code of Ethics of the American Medical Association, and by a decisive vote refused to change the Provisional Code which it then adopted; a code which, under the name of the New York Code, has been generally discussed by the medical press, and almost without exception adversely. It will be remembered that it copies very closely the former Code, except that it encourages freedom in consultations, and makes up for it by being very stringent with

regard to advertising, which seems like excusing sins we are inclined to by condemning those we have no mind to. This Code is called a provisional code, because its chief advocates, those who exerted themselves so actively in having it adopted by the Society, have now openly abandoned it, and have introduced an amendment, to be acted upon at the next meeting of the Society, abolishing this Code and substituting simply the formula that the only offences for which a member can be disciplined shall be comprised under the heading of "conduct unbecoming a physician and a gentleman." Inasmuch as the law does not require a physician to be a gentleman, and since the abolition of the National Code of Ethics was chiefly urged because it established a standard above that of the law, and was therefore illegal, we do not see how the authors of this simplified Code can consistently support even this; it would seem that there can be no safe ground for them to occupy short of the abolition of all codes, in cases of disagreement invoking the protection of the courts. To this at last must all medical societies come, which, abandoning their own legitimate field,-the cultivation of medical science, and the promoting of mutual acquaintance and good-fellowship in the profession,-assume to legislate for the government of physicians, and to adopt political methods in their management.

It is apparently an unfortunate circumstance for the New York Society that its annual meetings have been held in Albany at the time when the Legislature is in session; the air being full of politics, the miasm has apparently infected the Society, and its recent sessions show it to be deteriorating from a medical society proper into a medico-political society, imbued with an ambition of becoming the medical Legislature for the Empire State. It is not without significance in this connection that a committee was appointed to secure a room in the new Capitol for the future meetings of the Society.

The fact that the majority of the medical profession in the State of New York and more than two-thirds of the county societies have expressed their disapproval of its action upon the Code of 1882, without influencing the action of the State Society this year, appears to demonstrate that this Society has ceased to be a representative body, and now asserts its right to act as a legal board of control by authority vested in it by its charter from the State. Those most active in the movement which has crippled the usefulness and threatens the existence of the Association are almost entirely from the eastern part of the State, and the county society most distinguished in its advocacy of the measures adopted was the Society of the city of New York, although it is true that a petition signed by some of the oldest and most prominent members of the Society was presented in opposition to its action. It is greatly to be regretted, for the sake of harmony and good feeling and the best interests of the Society, that the temperate and conciliatory course advocated in this