Williams v. Scudder

• Decision Date: 26 April 1921
• Docket Number: 16841
• Citation: 131 N.E. 481,102 Ohio St. 305
• Parties: Williams Et Al. v. Scudder Et Al.
• Court: Ohio Supreme Court

131 N.E. 481

102 Ohio St. 305

Williams Et Al. v. Scudder Et Al.

No. 16841

Supreme Court of Ohio

April 26, 1921

Constitutional law - Police power - Legislative discretion and judicial review - Conservation of public health - Regulation of art of healing - Qualifications, examination and registration of practitioners - Section 1270, General Code - State medical board - Practitioners in limited branches - Sections 1274-1 to 1274-7, General Code - Chiropractors.

1. The measure of the police power of the state is the measure of the public need, limited only by the state and federal constitutions.

2. Public health is one of the most vital subjects for the exercise of that power.

3. Primarily, the state legislature is the judge of that need and in the exercise of that judgment must be given wide discretion.

4. The legislative judgment in this behalf will not be nullified except when it clearly appears that there has been a gross abuse of such discretion in undoubted violation of some state or federal constitutional provision.

5. In the conservation of the public health, the legislature may require all those who may desire to practice the art of healing, to furnish some substantial evidence, by public examination or otherwise, of qualifications to practice such art, as a whole or in any of its branches.

6. The statutory qualifications defined by Section 1270, General Code, as preliminary to taking an examination of persons desiring to secure a license to practice the art of healing in Ohio, are reasonable and valid statutory provisions, and are in full force and effect in the Limited Practice Act until lowered by any rule or regulation of the Ohio state medical board, pursuant to the statute.

7. The act of the general assembly, passed April 27, 1915 (106 O L., 202-204), now Sections 1274-1 to 1274-7, General Code further regulating the practice of medicine and surgery by authorizing the examination and registration of practitioners in the limited branches thereof, is a constitutional and valid exercise of legislative power.

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This is an action in injunction, brought by D. A. Williams and others, for themselves and all others similarly situated, some three hundred in number, in the court of common pleas of Cuyahoga county, Ohio.

The petition in substance declares that the act of the general assembly of the state of Ohio, known as the Platt-Ellis Law, enacted April 27, 1915 (106 O. L., 202-204), likewise the so-called Talley Law, known as Sections 12694 and 13423, General Code, enacted March 11, 1919 (108 O. L., pt. 1, 40-42), are both violative of the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Ohio. And in addition to the challenge made as to constitutionality, it is further alleged in the petition, that certain arbitrary discriminations were made against the practitioners of chiropractic by the defendants.

Upon issue joined, a hearing was had upon the merits before his honor, Judge Powell, of the court of common pleas, who granted the injunction.

An appeal was taken to the court of appeals. Upon hearing on the merits in the court of appeals the injunction was dissolved and the petition dismissed at the cost of the plaintiffs.

Error is now prosecuted to this court to reverse the judgment of the court of appeals.

Mr. Smith W. Bennett and Mr. Wm. H. Boyd, for plaintiffs in error. Mr. John G. Price, attorney general; Mr. Ray Martin; Mr. P. A. White and Mr. O. A. Dickey, for defendants in error.

WANAMAKER J.

Notwithstanding this court has sustained the constitutionality of the Medical Practice Act, both general and limited, in Nesmith v. State, 101 Ohio St. 158, and Shaw v. State, Id., 507, we have decided upon another review of these constitutional questions, as though they were originally before this court.

Public health is the very heart of public happiness. The constitutional guaranties of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are of little avail unless there be clearly implied therefrom the further guaranty of safeguard of the public health, in order that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, shall be made practical and plenary.

The legislative power of the state, which is here called in question, is limited only by the constitution of the state and the constitution of the nation; and before any legislative power, as expressed in a statute, can be held invalid, it must appear that such power is clearly denied by some constitutional provision.

It is likewise conceded that the Medical Practice Act must be justified, if at all, under the police power of the state.

The dimensions of the police power of the state are the dimensions of the public need, save only such limitations as are imposed by our written constitutions.

Of late years the doctrine of conservation has received a new impetus in our American system of government. Originally, this doctrine was applied largely to mines, forests, water-power, and our natural resources. Later it was extended to hogs, cattle, buffalo and wild animals generally, and, strange to say, lastly it was applied to human beings. Sanely and sensibly it was argued that life is worth little in the abstract, but must be made effective by the conservation of the health to which that life is entitled.

Man is still the greatest mystery to man. His mind and body are the greatest workshop of the world. The chemical and organic forces, operating in life and in death, in every possible variety of action and reaction, make him the most interesting study of natural science.

Over this wonderful laboratory, Doctor Nature presides. His remarkable management of the human organism, in preserving its orderly functions, is excelled in no other department of the universe. If uninterfered with or unhandicapped by any artificial circumstance or agency, he has within his laboratory the necessary cure for the major part of all the ills that human flesh is heir to.

As the Great Physician he has charge of this great laboratory that furnishes not only the motor power for all human activity, but likewise the curative agencies for the abnormal conditions that frequently arise from the abuses, excesses and exposures of human life.

The most that any human physician can do by way of cure of human ailments is to aid or facili- tate Doctor Nature's general plan. Manifestly, in order to do this, there must be a thorough knowledge of the workings of nature in the various departments of human life, the alimentary, the circulatory, the respiratory, the nervous, and all other departments that coordinate and cooperate in human life.

In order to intelligently and effectively cooperate, the human physician must have equal knowledge with Doctor Nature as to this human laboratory, its chemical and organic ailments, agents, and forces, else they will work to cross-purposes with each other.

This would seem too obvious to require further argument.

In primitive life every man was his own dentist, doctor, lawyer. Why? Because there were no specialists, and one man was about as smart as another. In the course of our civilization and education we came to realize that in many departments of life special knowledge and training were highly necessary, and that the time had gone when any person had the right to assume that he could skillfully exercise the healing art, advertise to such effect, and induce the public to believe he was so qualified, without the slightest evidence of such qualification.

Accordingly the states, now nearly all of them, have adopted a wise and salutary policy, that before persons shall engage in certain occupations that require special expert knowledge, training and experience, and as to which the general public have little or no knowledge, they must qualify before some board especially fitted to test them through some preliminary and appropriate examination, to ascertain their personal fitness to practice such special business or profession, in order to insure the public of their efficiency before securing the public's confidence and the public's cash.

It would seem obvious that in the exercise of the art of healing the human body it would be of primary importance to thoroughly know and understand the human body, its anatomy, physiology, hygiene and chemistry, through acquaintance with the structure of all the different organs of the body, their relation to each other, their several functions, separate and in conjunction with the other organs of the body, in their normal state, so as to be able to determine the nature and extent of any abnormality, which is always at the basis of disease.

It is surely only elementary to say that before one can treat a disease intelligently and efficiently he must know much about the nature and extent of that disease, the organs and parts affected, and even the cause of that disease. All these things and many more enter into an intelligent, practical and effective treatment.

Every business and science has a language all its own. One of the first terms confronting us in the art of healing is the scientific term "pathology," which relates to the nature, cause, progress and symptoms of a disease. Surely no argument is needed to convince one that such knowledge is highly essential to a proper diagnosis; that is, the determination of the particular disease or ailment from which the patient is suffering. After de- termining such disease, then comes the application of the appropriate remedy.

As to pathology there should be no substantial dispute between any of the different schools of the heading art. It deals with the objective analysis, a survey of the human body and its ailments or diseased organs and parts. Likewise as to the diagnosis of the signs or symptoms, internal or external connected with...