MEDICAL SOCIETY OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 
TO CONGRESS. 
The Medical Society of the District of Co- 
lumbia, at their meeting held 12th January, 
1870, appointed Drs. Lovejoy, Toner and 
Liebermau a committee to draft a statement 
of facts explaining the status of the Medical 
Society of the District of Columbia, with 
reference to the proposed action of Congress 
for the repeal of its charter. That commit- 
tee made the following report, which was 
adopted and ordered to be published : 
AN APPEAL. 
The Medical Society of the District of Co- 
lumbia, which has existed in this community 
for more than half a century, having been 
lately assailed, and a resolution, founded upon 
statements evidently derived from sources at. 
once malicious and false, having been intro- 
duced into the Senate of the United States to 
repeal its charter, in the following terms:— 
“Resolved, That the Committee on the District 
of Columbia be directed to consider the ex- 
pediency of repealing the charter of the Medi- 
cal Society of the District of Columbia' f\ud 
of such other legislation as may be necessary 
in order to secure for medical practitioners fn 
the District of Columbia equal rights and op- 
portunities without distinction of color;”— 
this society deems it respectful and due to it's 
own dignity to give a public explanation of 
its actions in order that it may be exonerated, 
in the opinion of all just men, from the charges 
which have been brought against it by design- 
ing and interested enemies. 
It has been charged that this society has, 
with prejudice and a tyrannical exercise of the 
powers conferred on it by its charter, refused 
to certain individuals chartered rights which 
they could equitably demand. 
The falsity of this charge will be apparent 
upon an examination of the provisions of the 
charter. 
1. The charter requires that the society 
Khali elect a board of examiuers “whose duty 
it shall he to grant licenses to such medical 
and chirurgical gentlemen as they may, upon 
a full examination, judge qualified to prac- 
tice the medical and chirurgical arts, or as 
may produce a diploma from some respectable 
medical'college or society.” 
2 It imposes a penalty upon any one ven- 
turing to practice without such a license. 
3. It forbids the society “in anywise to 
resulate the practice of medical or chiurgical 
attendance on such persons as may need those 
services, or to establish or fix a tariff of 
charges for medical attendance or advice, or 
to interfere, in any way, with charges or fees 
for medical attendance or advice.” 
4. The privilege is given by the same instru- 
ment to the society that its members “may 
elect into their body such medical and chirur- 
gical practitioners, within the District of 
Columbia, as they may deem qualified to become 
members of the society. 
With respect to the first of these—that is, 
license after examination—nearly every re- 
spectable practitioner of medicine who has 
settled in this District desirous of fulfilling 
the requirements of the law, has applied for 
and received the license from the board of ex- 
aminers, and in no case has this license been 
refused to a person passing the required ex- 
amination. Even the colored physicians who 
now complain have received their license im- 
mediately after examination and payment of 
the fee invariably paid by all applicants for 
license. The board has granted the license in 
every instance, without any distinction or 
restriction when the proper qualifications 
have been ascertained to exist. 
2. The Society has on very rare occasions 
deemed it expedient to have the legal penalty 
i nflicted upon persons for practising without 
the aforesaid license, and then only for the 
protection of the public against notorious and 
swindling quacks. 
3. The Society has never, in a single in- 
stance, by forbidding consultations or restrict- 2 
bers as he may deem proper would be an un- 
warrantable infringement of his franchise. 
Shall the existence of the society be threat- 
ened because a majority of its members have 
held and acted upon the belief that the admis- 
sion of certain persons as members would ren- 
der the attendance upon these meetings so dis- 
tasteful as to insure their cessation, and thus, 
far from benefiting the complainants, destroy 
the usefulness of the society? 
In fine, the license from the board of exam- 
iners conveys all the rights which this society 
can confer. The privilege of membership is 
merely a privilege of association and social re- 
union, and it is for entrance into this social 
reunion that the friends of the colored physi- 
cian are clamorous, and not only threaten to 
destroy the society unless admitted, but have 
boldly demanded, in public meeting, that the 
charter be taken away from the society ; and 
among the prime movers in this attempt to 
effect the destruction of the society are cer- 
tain individuals who have settled amongst us 
of late, have received the courtesy of its mem- 
bers; yet, while retaining their membership, 
they are plotting its destruction. 
It will thus be seen that the charter secures 
to all medical practitioners, without distinc- 
tion, rightB dependent only upon certain 
moral and intellectual qualifications, and that 
the society has never desired nor attempted 
to interfere with or deny those rights. It 
will also be seen that it leaves the question 
of membership as one of optional and social 
association. 
This society does therefore most solemnly, 
in the presence of the public, protest against 
a tyrannical attempt to punish it for the ex- 
ercise of an undoubted and legitimate right, 
and in the absence of any express legislation 
to meet the emergency, the opposition to 
which might then be justly chargeable to the 
society as a misdemeanor. 
J. W. H. LiOvk.joy, M. D., 
C. H. Liebbrmann, M. I)., 
J. M. Tonkb, M.D- 
Committee. 
ing them in any way, infringed nat provision 
of the charter forbidding interference with 
“the regulation of the practice of medical at- 
tendance.” But, debarred from the exercise 
of these powers in the Society, the medical 
practitioners of this District many years ago 
organized a voluntary society, known as the 
Medical Association of the District of Colum- 
bia, and in that association have made regu- 
lations with respect to medical ethics, includ- 
ing the regulation of consultations, fees, &c. 
The regulations of this voluntary association 
have been confounded with the acts of the 
Society, and the latter body is thus made to 
bear thecredit or the odium of regulations not 
properly chargeable to it. The existence of 
this second body, the Medical Association, is 
not fully known by the public or some of the 
profession as it should be, and in the charges 
made against the Society in Congress there 
was a marked evidence of this confusion. 
4. By reference to the fourth provision of 
the charter, as stated above, it will be seen 
that membership is not a right compulsory on 
the society to grant when applied for, and 
that the society has, in fact, in the exercise of 
its legitimaie right on more than one occa- 
sion, rejected candidates for membership; and 
it has thus refused those individuals, not as 
a right which they could demand, but a benefit 
which it was optional with the society to 
bestow. 
Every man, be he Chinaman, Choctaw or 
African, whether he may think proper to 
practice hydropathy, Borcery, homoeopathy, 
clairvoyance, or any form of quackery, has a 
right under the law to demand of the board of 
examiners a license or certificate on present- 
ing a diploma from a respectable medical col- 
lege or passing the required examination. It 
would therefore be absurd to insist that every 
licentiate should necessarily be entitled to 
the privileges of membership, which, briefly 
stated, consist of social reunion for medical 
discussion, and the election of officers an. 
nually. 
The medical society for a series of years has 
held weekly meetings for the discussion of 
medical subjects, and these, meetings have 
been of the nature of social reunions, and of 
course each member has exercised his right 
in the selection of his associates. To ques- 
tion his right to vote in the election of mem- 
W. P. Johnston, M. D.. 
Pres’t Med. Society, D. 
Wm. I-iKR, M. D., 
Secretary Med. Society, D. O.