“We fail to see wherein this appellant has committed any offense against the laws of the State. If he was competent to practice medicine at the time he received his license he is competent to practice now. Nothing that has been alleged against him has affected in any way his ability, fitness, or competency as a medical practitioner. Neither has he committed any penal offense. True he has advertised, but advertising is not a felony; not even a misdemeanor.
“The fact that the medical societies to which he belonged have revoked his membership has no bearing on the case. These societies have no official powers so far as the State is concerned. They may very properly say who may, or who may not, hold membership with them, but they have no authority to say who may, or who may not practice medicine. Societies of this kind are purely social and professional; they are not endowed with executive, administrative, or legislative power to act for the State.”
This finding established in a forceful, indisputable manner the legal right of a physician to advertise his skill as a healer of mankind without affecting his ability. It was not to the liking of the sticklers for ethics who control the medical organizations. They would have the young medics believe—and up to the time the McCoy case was decided they had succeeded—that they were all powerful; that their word was law, not only as regards membership in the societies, but also as to who might, or might not, practice medicine. They succeeded because they controlled the State Board of Health. But the ruling of the court put an end to this impudent assumption of authority. It laid down and made clear the important fact that, in passing upon the competency of applicants for licenses, medical ability and good moral character were the sole and only points to be considered.
There is advertising and advertising, one kind respectable and dignified; the other outrageously bad. The author would not for a moment countenance the use of flamboyant “ads” like those with which the “weak men” and other quacks bombard the public through the daily press. Such advertising as a general thing is positively indecent and dishonest. The men who place it and the newspaper publishers who print it should be prosecuted into the penitentiary. It is a queer thing that so-called high-class newspapers which decline to accept lottery and get-rich-quick “ads” on the ground of morality (we’ll say nothing of their illegality) will openly solicit and publish the disgusting business advertisements of medical charlatans and fakirs.