CHIROPRACTORS IN AMERICA.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 116, 17 May 1924, Page 14

CHIROPRACTORS IN AMERICA.

JARRED INT MANSLAUGHTER ___RDICT. FAR-REACHING EFFE_«9. (From Our Special Correspondent.) SAN FRANCISCO, April 16. The future of chiropractors in the United. States now hangs on a most important decision just handed down by a Brooklyn Supreme Court jury before Justice Hagerty, when the fate was decided of Dr. Ernest G. H. Meyer, the first thiropractor to be tried in the State of New York for the death of a patient. At the end of thirty-five ininuues the jurors gave a verdict of manslaughter in the second degree, with a recommendation for clemency. Dr. Joseph R. O'Donnell, State Secretary of the Universal Chiropractic Association, which defended Dr. Meyer, said after the verdict he wished to study it with his lawyers before he predicted how far-reaching its effects would be. "This verdict makes any chiropractor, no matter how intelligent, industrious, and conscientious he may be, liable to conviction for manslaughter if his patient, for cny reason, dies," said Dr. Daniel S. Dougherty, secretary of the New York County -ledical Association, and sponsor of the revised Medical Practices Act now before the Legislature of Now York fctate. Dr. Meyer was convicted for the death, last December, of six-year-old Caroline Germuth, whom he treated four days before a licensed physician, Dr. C. L. Dance, was called in in consultation. Dr. Dance diagnosed the case as advanced diphtheria, and injected anti-toxin. A few hours later Caroline died. The defence contended the diagnosis may not have been correct, and the anti-toxin, in the child's weakened condition, may have been fatal. Former Lieutenant-Governor Thomas Norris, of Wisconsin, counsel of the Universal Chiropractic Association, told the jury that Dr. Mayer did all he had claimed, as a chiropractor, he could do, by relieving pressure on Caroline's spine, and was not guilty of culpable negligence. No effort was made by the Public Prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Cuff, to dispute this. Dr. Meyer had not passed the State medical examination, he said, and thus, in taking the case of a dangerously ill person, had gambled with her life.

Question of Skill. "If the defendant took charge of this case," Justice Hagarty charged the jury, "he impliedly claimed to possess the reasonable degree of learning and skill ordinarily possessed by physicians serving in this locality and regarded necessary to qualify them to engage iv the practice of medicine." Dr. Meyer, who is twenty-nine and married, with offices at No. 4.")8, 77th Street, Brooklyn, was ordered to reappear later to receive his sentence. The verdict caused a tremendous stir in chiropractic circles throughout America, where the profession has grown extensively of recent years, and chiropractors generally felt that the manslaughter conviction of Dr. Meyer had left their calling in an anomalous position. This, at least, was the expressed opinion of Dr. J. H. Stern, of Brooklyn, the president of the Chiropractors' Association of New York City. "The situation is unfortunate for chiropractors in this respect," Dr. Stern said. "Hereafter, if a "person dies following chiropratic treatment, the chiropractor involved is almost sure to be prosecuted for manslaughter. \ "This situation has arisen primarily because this is one of the few States in which chiropractors are not regulated and recognised by. statute. We welcome statutory regulations so long, as they are fair to our profession. We feel we will be safe only when -deciuate laws are passed on the subject of chiropractic, if necessary, limiting its practice. "Most chiropractors feel that Dr. Meyer was dealt with rather severely, though I am sure the majority of our profession would not approve of his course in attempting to treat the child who died of diphtheria. "While frankly making these concessions, chiropractors will never admit to domination by the medical profession, and that is being attempted. Attempts to get through legislation regulating chiropractors in this State have been abortive, mainly because their object has really been to put chiropractors wholly at the mercy of physicians. "Chiropractors in. this locality now are in jeopardy even for ordinary errors for which no physician would be held accountable."' Dr. Stern said chiropractors should be required by law to take a threeyear course in the study of the subject.