No. 251. 
IN ASSEMBLY, 
March 27, 1832. 
REPORT 
Of Mr. Winfield, from the committee on medical so- 
cieties and colleges. 
Mr. Winfield, from the committee on medical societies and colle- 
ges, presents the following 
REPORT: 
Having duly examined the report and bill submitted to this House 
by the chairman of the medical committee, and finding that some of 
the principles contained therein are inconsistent with the interests 
and high character of our profession, I beg the indulgence of the House 
while I present to them my views in the following report. The 
task thus imposed has been urged on me more from necessity than 
inclination. If ordinary causes had been sufficient to restrain me, 
they were here, I confess, presented in "bold relief." The re- 
proach, that "doctors always disagree the respect which I enter- 
tain for the honorable chairman of the medical committee, and for 
his feelings ; and the repugnance which I always feel to the presen- 
tation of myself before the public as a writer, were all sufficient rea- 
sons, under ordinary circumstances, to paralyze every incentive; 
but under existing circumstances, I was impelled by considerations 
and motives paramount to these. They were no less than the high- 
est regard to the welfare of mankind, to the preservation of spme of 
the mostjnoble and useful institutions of our common country, and to 
the honor and respectability of our profession. 
I should have been prepared to communicate my sentiments on 
this subject when the first report was presented to this House, had 
[A. No. 251.] 
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[Assembly 
that report been submitted to the examination of the committee be- 
fore it was offered; and that it should have been submitted, is a 
courtesy, I am informed, which parliamentary custom has ever coun- 
tenanced and sanctioned, but which has from some cause been neg- 
lected in this case. I offer this not only as an apology for the pro- 
crastination of this report, but I offer it further, as an argument that 
the report ought not to have been presented under the circumstan- 
ces that then existed ; and if I can understand the language of two 
of the committee with whom I have since conversed, it is safely im- 
plied that it ought not to have been presented at all in its present 
character, and especially, as the report of the majority of that com- 
mittee. 
I would observe before I commence my arguments, on the excep- 
tionable parts of this report and bill before you, that I accord in 
opinion with the honorable chairman of the medical committee in re- 
lation to the law legalizing quackery. The law as it now stands se- 
cures to the quack the privilege of committing the most fatal blun- 
ders, as long as he commits them through the agency of botanic me- 
dicine, and without detection; and not only does the statute secretly 
connive at the errors thus committed by the quack, but it places him 
in a position by which he is enabled to extract from the sufferer a 
payment for his blunders. Our Legislature, would, therefore, in all 
probability, be promoting the interests of our profession, and the 
welfare of society in general, in expunging that law from our statute 
books. 
The first exceptionable feature in the character of the report and 
bill before you, which I shall notice, is the recommendation of a pro- 
vision, by statute, which shall make it necessary for every physician 
who may locate himself in this State, from a foreign country, or from 
any other State in the United States, however good his credentials, 
to subject himself again to an examination, either before these exa- 
miners to be appointed under this novel state of things, or the fa- 
culty of one of the incorporated colleges of this State. This require- 
ment is calculated to cast a reproach, not only on the medical colie- 
leges of Europe, but equally on those of our sister States; and is, 
therefore, incompatible with liberal and enlightened policy and a 
friendly intercourse with our own States, as well as with the na- 
tions of Europe. Besides this, as it seems to be a great object of 
the report to set guards against a growing monopoly, and to establish 
the profession on principles of pure democracy, I think in this case, No. 251.] 
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the end would be defeated; and hence it follows that a solecism 
is produced between the proposition and the argument. And I 
would here observe that, although the result happens to be correct, 
in the case which I shall now notice, the same logical anamoly is 
presented between the general proposition, in regard to monopolies, 
and the recommendation of a law to expunge the section legalizing 
quackery; for, if the general proposition is correct, that the arena 
must be open for every competitor, then most assuredly it is wrong 
to restrain any person from practising physic and surgery; on his 
own merits he should stand or fall. 
The most exceptionable part of this report and bill yet remain to 
be considered. I refer to that part which recommends the passage 
of a law authorising the Medical Society of the city and county of 
New-York to appoint a board of examiners, to examine candidates 
for the degree of Doctor of Medicine ; thus converting the whole 
society, at once, into a Medical College. That a local Medical So- 
ciety should ask for such prerogatives is a chimera unheard of be- 
fore, in any State or country. To shew the fallacy of this request 
permit me to try it by the monopolizing test of the report. There 
are, I think, fifty-five counties in this State, the most of which con- 
tain physicians who would compete with the most talented members 
of the Medical Society of New-York, either as practitioners or pro- 
fessors ; if, then, it be an important object for the faculty of the city 
and county of New-York to obtain such a law, and if granting favors 
to a few and investing them with exclusive powers constitutes a 
monopoly, then, if the chairman of the medical committee does not 
ask for a law, against which he proposes, in his report, to be so desi- 
rous of guarding, I confess I do not understand logic. 
We will next try this medical enterprize by another test proposed 
in the report; the rule of competition. The Medical Society, of 
the city and county of New-York, seem to think that some of their 
young men would make equally as good professors as those gentle- 
men who are now professors in the Medical Colleges of this State ; 
and being ambitious of fame and glory, ask of you the law proposed 
by the bill before you, and which is no secret I believe, they pro- 
spectively contemplate the organization of medical schools on the 
basis of this privilege. The physicians in all the other counties, be- 
ing equally ambitious of prefessional honors, may apply also for simi- 
lar privileges. What would be the result ? Fifty-five colleges would 
soon be organized : then carry out this levelling doctrine still a little 4 
Assembly 
further, and every physician might not only be a professor, but every 
man might be his own doctor. That anarchy and confusion would 
follow, is a deduction so irresistible that any further illustration is 
unnecessary. So much for collision between propositions and re- 
sults. We have thus proved, I think, that the law asked for can 
not be sustained by aiguments fairly deduced from the propositions 
contained in the report. We will now present a few facts to the 
consideration of this House, to prove further the fallacy of the con- 
clusions of the chairmart of the medical committee. And first, per- 
mit me to observe, that 1 am friendly to a fair competition in all pro- 
fessions and all kinds of business. Not such a competition, however, 
as shall be excited by the destruction and annihilation of all our 
present incorporations and institutions, but such an one as shall bring 
into the field, when required by the wants of community, other in- 
corporations. If, then, this proposition is correct, and the necessi- 
ties of New-York required another medical institution, the petition- 
ers should have prayed for one similar to those which already exist- 
ed, and not for a law to open the arena to all the members of the 
Medical Society of New-York, wrhich consists of two hundred and 
seventy-one medical gentlemen. In this case division and confu- 
sion would not only follow7 among themselves, but the destruction 
and loss of all our incorporated institutions also. 
That the bill proposed is not required by the faculty of the State 
of New-York, and consequently that it is not considered necessary to 
a fair competition, I will in the next place demonstrate satisfactorily, 
1 think. 
The medical society of the State of New-York, at a meeting held 
at this place during the present session of the Legislature, on the 
information which they received that a change in the law was Con- 
templated, resolved by a vote, which, with one exception, was 
unanimous, "that they deemed any alteration in the laws regulating 
the practice of physic and surgery inexpedient at this time." A 
copy of this resolution, signed by the secretary, and sealed with the 
seal of the society, accompanies this report. 
In the next place, 1 would observe, that from all the county medi- 
cal societies of this State, there is not a solitary petition praying for 
this formidable innovation, except from New-York ; and to the gen- 
tlemen composing these societies, thus scattered over every part of 
this "empire Stat^" will be awarded by every candid-man, the No. 251.] 
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merit of being at least, as well qualified to form opinions in relation 
to the necessities of the profession, as the few petitioners from the 
city of New-York. 
It appears from the memorials and remonstrances presented to 
this House on the subject of this bill, that even the faculty of the 
city and county of New-York are divided ; that seventy physicians, 
besides the faculty associated with the medical institution of this 
place, have remonstrated against the bill, and a communication has 
been received that a list containing the nameybf thirty physicians 
more is now on the way; it will hence be obvious, that whatever 
may be the feelings of these gentlemen, on the necessity of a regu- 
lar constituted college, they think the present bill an innovation on 
the rights and privileges of the medical faculty, and that more evil 
than happy effects must result fuom it. 
I am not called on in this discussion to give an opinion on the ne- 
cessity of organizing an additional college with the same powers 
and privileges that has been granted to the other medical semina- 
ries, or I would fearlessly, as in the present case, give an opinion; 
but I would here remark, that there is even a difference of opinion 
on this subject, as has been proved in the refusal of the Legislature 
heretofore to incorporate such an institution. They, of course, 
must have come to the conclusion that two colleges in this State, 
and twenty-one in the United States, must open the arena sufficient- 
ly to competition. 
If this conclusion was correct in regard to an additional college, 
then the prayer to give professorshipVto, two hundred and seventy- 
one physicians in the city and'cbunty of New-York must be, as I 
have already pronounced it, chimer^al. y 
Of our professors attached to the two colleges ^^HRtate, and 
| of their fidelity and talents, I havoAus far refrainedNrom saying a 
word, knowing that the ide^hjJ^en industriously disseminated, 
that the opponents of this bill were acting under their influence; 
but taking into consideration the flourishing condition of our medi- 
cal schools, and the profession in this State, we must be constrain- 
ed to point to them and say with pride as well as pleasure, " these 
are our jewels." 
I have thus honestly, and "with a single eye" to the interests 
of my profession, discharged a painful duty ; and I do not fear that 6 
Assembly 
any man will say to me that I have been actuated from other mo- 
tives than those of predilections in favor of, and justice to my pro- 
fession. I ask therefore, no favors from any of the professors or in- 
stitutions of my country, which, as a citizen, I am not entitled to, 
neither do I fear any indignation that my course may excite. 
Resolution adopted at a meeting of the Medical Society of the State 
of New-York. 
\ Albany, March 6th, 1832. 
\ At the meeting of the State Medical Society, in February last, 
the following resolution was adopted : 
" Resolved^ That the State Medical Society deem any alteration 
in the lawTs regulating the practiced physic and surgery inexpedi- 
ent at the present time." 
" JOEL A. WING, Secretary"