of hypothetical views has, however, not pre- vented attempts at the prediction of earth- quakes, and the enrthquiike prophet must have hie mention. Falh, an Aiietrian, figured in this rdle some years ago with such apparent succeee ae to iuspii'e an Italiiin admirer to com- pose a sonnet banning
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��More recently, Capt. Delaunay of the Fieuch marine artillery, and evidently a verj' different man from the emiueut mathematician of the same name, made HOinethiug of a stir by his predictions. In apite of severe criticisms from Faye and Daiibr^e. he persisted in main- taining that the Krakatoa outbui-st resulted from the conjuoction of Jupiter and the swarm of August meteors, as he had foreseen it would. Worse than this, he announces a more violent ' seismic tempest' in 188(1.3, when the malevolent Saturn lends a hand ; and colo- nists in Java are reported to be troubled thereby! Another method of forecasting is discovered by Mr. Charles Zeuger, who finds that electric and magnetic storms, uurorne, tempests, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions, — all, simply enough, result from a single cause, whose cycle agrees with a semi-rotation of the suu. Nothing of this would be worthy of mention, had it not soberly appeared in the Oomptea rendus of the French academy of sciences, where it is airily entered under the heading of 'meteorology.'
A BILL iw TO HE iutrwluceil into the legis- lature of Massachusetts to regulate the practice of medicine. It is framed closely upon those already in force in several states in the union, such as Illinois, West Virginia, Alabama, North Carolina (Ohio, Maine, Pennsylvania, and Texas have bills under consideration) , and provides for a board of medical examiners who shall not be connected with any medical school. They are lo be appointed by the governor, and their function will be to issue licenses to prac- tise medicine or deutistry, on the basis of a diploma from some legally organized medical college, or of ten years' practice, or of an
��examination of an elementary and practical character in anatomy, sut^ry, chemistry, pathology, obstetrics, and dentistry. After July, 188'), all candidates are to be examined. This board is to be endowed with legal powers suJIIcient to carry out the purposes of this act.
It will be noticed that this bill is not ftamed in the interests of any so-called ■ school ' or ' patliy,' and contains no allusion, direct or indirect, to points iu dispute between such schools. The necessity of some such bill I the interests, not of medical science, but c ordinary decency and humanity, is probabljT hardly appreciated by more than a small fh«s' lion of the community, even of the more intel- ligent portions. One oflen hears expressions used implying that the user supposes that a diploma coufers the right to practise medicine, wliile the fact is that nothing of the sort is necessary. The privilege of giving (or sell^; ing) medical advice to one's neighbor is r& gardeil t)y the state of Massachusetts as oiM of the most fundamental and inalienable ol rights, and on a par with " the right to lifo^ Uberty, and the pursuit of happiness." only medical function for which this legally demands even the pretence of a medici education is the signing of certificates of ic sanity. The practice of mcilicine, surgery, and obstetrics, with the right to sign certificate^ of death, may lie legally assumed by any horse- car driver who some cold day feels that ht^ profession demands too much personal ex- iwsure, steps from his platform, puts up bis sign with an ' M.D.,' and waits for patients. I [■ ho pubhcly calls himself a doctor, he is legallj' one ; and, if he escapes a suit for malpractice* the law cannot touch him.
This bill can hardly be objected to as toq strict by any |>hysician8, except of the cla just described, or those immediately above U, or, on llic other hand, by that portion of tluj community drawn Trom all social ranks wha consider education as a positive drawback, on^ medical knowledge as a heaven-born inspirft- tion. Most persons, however, who patronize
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