221 Mass. 184 | Mass. | 1915
The defendant has been found guilty of violation of R. L. c. 76, § 8, in that he practiced medicine without being lawfully authorized. He defends on the ground that he is a chiropractor and that his acts do not constitute a violation of the statute. The 'evidence tended to show that he kept an office in Boston, indicated by a sign on which was his name followed by the word, chiropractor; that he practiced for pay; that he said that the basis of chiropractic is the adjustment of the vertebrae of the spine; that the vertebrae when not in their normal positions press upon the nerves at the spine; that the malposition of these vertebrae was the cause of abnormality and that an adjustment of these vertebrae to their normal positions would remove the pressure at the spine; that he said that he did not cure, that hé simply adjusted. He testified that "chiropractic is the specific science that removes pressure upon the nerves by the adjustment of spinal vertebrae. There are no instruments used. It is done by hand only.” The treatment pursued by the defendant was to have those who resorted to him go into an inner room and remove their outer garments until they were stripped to the waist. The patient then took a sitting position. The defendant examined down the spine, beginning at the top, by feeling with his fingers to see whether each vertebra was in its proper position. The method to discover whether a vertebra was out of position was by making a gliding - move of the three middle fingers of the right hand, which constituted the process of “palpation” whereby one vertebra was compared with another. As a result of this “analysis” the defendant was able to tell whether vertebrae were out of alignment, or out of their normal positions. In maldng “adjustments,” the patient was placed on.a low table with face downward and the vertebra which was out of condition was given a quick thrust or push by the hands of the defendant. The acts performed by the defendant constitute, first, an examination of the vertebrae of the spinal column and a determination whether they are in a normal or in an unnatural position; and, second, a manipulation of such of the vertebrae as are found to be out' of position, so that they will become regular and correct with reference to each other. Although
It is of no consequence that the defendant abstained from the use of the words “diagnosis,” “treatment,” or “disease” in description of what he did, and employed the terms “analysis,” “palpation” and “adjustment.” The acts which he did and their manifest design are to be examined rather than the words used, in order to ascertain the true nature of the defendant’s conduct. A
The judge stated to the jury, without objection or exception, that “the defendant did not claim that he came within any of the exemptions, of § 9 of c. 76 of the Revised Laws.” Hence it is not open to the defendant now to contend that his practice rightly may- be described as "cosmopathic method of healing,” the final exception in § 9. Even if this point had been saved, there is nothing in it. “Cosmopathic” is defined in the New Standard Dictionary as “Open to the access of supernormal knowledge or emotion, supposedly from a preternatural world.” Without undertaking to decide what a “cosmopathic method of healing” may be, plainly it does not include the defendant’s operations.
The statute as thus construed is constitutional. That was decided in Commonwealth v. Porn, 196 Mass. 326, and affirmed in Commonwealth v. Jewelle, 199 Mass. 558. A somewhat similar statute was upheld in Hewitt v. Charier, 16 Pick. 353. To the same effect in principle are Dent v. West Virginia, 129 U. S. 114, and Collins v. Texas, 223 U. S. 288, and cases there cited. See also State v. Johnson, 84 Kans. 411. The protection of the public from those who undertake to treat or manipulate the human body without that degree of education, training and skill which the Legislature has prescribed as necessary to the general safety of the people is within the police power of the State. This general purpose may be effectuated by requiring even of those who propose to confine their practice to a narrow specialty a much broader knowledge of the subject provided such qualification is regarded by the Legislature as necessary for the practice of any branch of medicine. The statute does not impair in any constitutional sense the liberty of the defendant. The protection of the public health is an object of such vital importance to the welfare of the State that
Exceptions overruled.