People v. Love

• Decision Date: 22 June 1921
• Docket Number: No. 13881.,13881.
• Citation: 131 N.E. 809,298 Ill. 304
• Parties: PEOPLE v. LOVE.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

298 Ill. 304

131 N.E. 809

PEOPLE

v.LOVE.

No. 13881.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

June 22, 1921.

Error to Vermilion County Court; Thomas A. Graham, Judge.

Lucius J. Love was convicted of treating human ailments without license, in violation of Medical Practice Act, § 22, and he brings error.

Reversed.

Acton & Acton and Love & Kilgore, all of Danville, for plaintiff in error.

Edward J. Brundage, Atty. Gen., John H. Lewman, State's Atty., of Danville, and Floyd E. Britton, of Springfield (Ray Carter, of Danville, of counsel), for the People.

DUNCAN, J.

Plaintiff in error, Lucius J. Love, graduated April 1, 1920, from the Palmer School of Chiropractice, located at Davenport, Iowa, and incorporated May 24, 1907. That institution has a full two-year course prescribed, which covers anatomy, physiology, hygiene, symptomatology, histology, chiropractic analysis, chiropractic nerve-tracing and palpation, and other studies. He took the full two-year course in that institution prior to his graduation. There is no chiropractic school or college in this country that has a four-year course of study, and so far as this record shows no other school or college that has more than a two-year course. Plaintiff in error's previous training for his profession consisted of a common school education and also of more than three years' high school work. He and his wife, who is also a graduate of the same chiropractic school, opened an office May 3, 1920, in Danville, Ill., and practiced as chiropractors for the treatment of human ailments without the use of drugs and surgery. Previous to beginning his practice he made application to the department of registration and education to ascertain what was necessary for him to do to be examined and licensed to practice his profession. He received from the superintendent of registration instructions which the law and that departmentprescribe as prerequisite to being admitted to such an examination. Among such instructions received by him was a rule or regulation of that department in this language:

‘This application [referring to his application for examination and license] must be accompanied by letters of recommendation with regard to the moral and professional character of the applicant from at least two reputable medical men or osteopathic physicians who live in Illinois, or if from nonresidents of the state, such letters must be indorsed by reputable medical men or osteopathic physicians of Illinois.’

Being advised that the requirements of the Illinois law to obtain his license were void because unreasonable, discriminatory, and unconstitutional, he began practice as a chiropractor and treated a number of patients for various ills according to the methods of chiropractors. He was convicted and sentenced to pay a fine of $50 and costs of prosecution in the county court of Vermilion county on October 22, 1920, on an indictment charging him with treating human ailments without the use of drugs or medicine and without operative surgery and without a license, in violation of section 22 of the Medical Practice Act, approved June 25, 1917. He has prosecuted this writ of error direct to this court, the constitutionality of a statute being involved.

Section 22 of the Medical Practice Act provides that any person who, not being then licensed to practice to treat human ailments without the use of drugs or medicines and without operative surgery, shall treat human ailments by such methods, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall be punished by a fine of not less than $25 nor more than $200, or confined in the county jail not more than one year, or punished by both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court. There is no question of the violation of said section by plaintiff in error. His main defense in this case is that section 5 of the act, which fixes the minimum standards of professional education required to practice medicine and surgery in all their branches and for treating human ailments without the use of drugs or medicine or operative surgery is invalid because unreasonable and discriminatory, violative of section 1 of article 2 of the Constitution of Illinois, and also of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the federal Constitution. That section, so far as material to the issues in this case, provides as follows:

‘Sec. 5. Minimum standards of professional education are fixed as follows:

‘1. For the practice of medicine and surgery in all their branches:

‘(a) For an applicant, who is a graduate of a medical college prior to July 1, 1922, that he is a graduate of a medical college deemed to be reputable and in good standing at the time of his graduation and completed a course of study in such medical college in accordance with the laws to regulate the practice of medicine and the rules of the State Board of Health established and in force at the time of graduation. * * *

‘2. For the practice of any system or method of treating human ailments without the use of drugs or medicine and without operative surgery; that the applicant is a graduate of a professional school, college or institutional teaching the system of treating human ailments for which the applicant desires to be licensed, which requires as a prerequisite to graduation four years' course of instruction, the time elapsing between the beginning of the first year and the ending of the last, or fourth year to be not less than forty months, and which is deemed to be reputable and in good standing.’

Laws 1917, p. 580.

If the section fixing the requisite qualifications of plaintiff in error to obtain a license to practice his profession is invalid, there can be no penalty under section 22 imposed against him under this indictment. This is so because sections 2, 3 and 4 of the act provide, in substance, that no person shall practice medicine and surgery or any of the branches thereof, or any system or method of treating human ailments without the use of drugs or medicine or surgery, without a license so to do; and no person shall, except as otherwise provided in the act, hereafter be licensed to practice medicine, or any other system or method of treating human ailments, unless he shall pass a satisfactory examination conducted by the department of registration and education, and shall make application, submit evidence verified by oath and satisfactory to the department that he is 21 years of age or over, of good moral character, and has the professional and preliminary education required by the act. If he has not the professional qualifications required by the statute, he cannot, under said sections, even be admitted to an examination; and that was the substance of the information plaintiff in error received when he applied to the department of registration and education for examination.

Chiropractic is a drugless method of treating ailments of the human body, chiefly by manipulations of the spinal column with the hand. The theory of this system, as explained in this record, is that, when the spinal column is in all its parts in place and performing its proper functions, and the nerves running therefrom to the various organs and parts of the body are undisturbed and performing their functions, many, but not all, of the ills to which the human body is susceptible do not and cannot take place. To state it differently and more understandingly, the theory of this science is that, if any of the vertebrae of the spine are seriously affected or partially dislocated, such affections or subluxations generally cause disturbances in...