100 Ala. 132 | Ala. | 1893
The indictment in this case charges that the defendant “did engage in the business of practising dentistry without having obtained a license from the board of dental examiners in the State of Alabama, and contrary to law,” &c., &c.
It was admitted that the defendant did engage in the
This supposed license was issued under the provisions of sections 1528 and 1532 of the Code of 1876. The first of these sections required a license or certificate of qualification as a condition precedent to the right to practise dentistry, and the other—1532—provides : “Every certificate of qualification authorizing any person to practice medicine in this State, which shall be issued by any authorized board of medical examiners, shall be presented to the probate judge of the county in which such person resides, who shaíl officially endorse the same, and seal it with the seal of the county, and who shall also cause a full and fair copy of same to be made in a well bound book to be kept for that purpose, and called the register of licensed practitioners of medicine,” &g. The so-called license issued to this defendant was never presented to the probate judge of any county for his official endorsement, was never officially endorsed by any probate judge, nor was it ever sealed with the seal of his county by any such judge; and it was not recorded in the office of a judge of probate nor filed for record until March 23, 1891. That this statute in all of its requirements is within legislative competency is not questioned. That those of its provisions which were either not complied with at all or not until years from the issuance of the alleged license had elapsed mean something and were intended to subserve some end deemed important by the law makers it would be absurd to deny. To hold, as contended for appellant, they were merely directory in the sense that the license was equally efficacious without a compliance with them would be to declare that they had no office to perform and were inserted by the general assembly as mere sounding Avords without pith or moment. This contention is based on the fact that no time is prescribed within which the license shall be presented to and officially endorsed, sealed and recorded by the judge of probate, and from this it is argued that the license imports authority to practise dentistry without these things being done, or at least that when the license is finally recorded—the other requirements not being
After this so-called license was issued to the defendant, and long before it was recorded in the office of any judge of probate, the law on this subject was changed. By the act of February 11, 1881, (Acts 1880-81, p. 82) a board of dental examiners was established, and it was made “unlawful for any person to engage in the practice of dentistry in the State of Alabama unless said person has obtained license from a board of dental examiners duly authorized and appointed by this act to issue said license.” The only exception to the operation of this act had reference to dentists who had been in the regular practice of dentistry for five years next preceding the passage thereof, and the exception in their favor only relieved them from examination and entitled them
Our conclusions are that the so-cailed license of 1879, never had any efficacy, that conceding validity to it, it was nullified and avoided by the act of 1881, that the court therefore properly excluded it, and, the charge made by the indictment being otherwise admitted properly rendered a judgment of conviction, which is affirmed.