WHEN DOCTORS DIFFER.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 71, 16 November 1912, Page 5

WHEN DOCTORS DIFFER.

VENOMOUS PERSONAL ATTACKS. The members of the medical profession who have resolved to make the Insurance Act a success are meeting with all sorts of obloquy from those who have ranged themselves on the side of the British Media'! Asso.nition in its attempt to boycott the measure. An instance of t.us is supplied by Dr. Knight, the .'.on, organ’sing secretary of the National Jnsuronct Medical Association, a body winch las secured from' nearly 9000 doctors a promise to work the Act. Or. Knight has received an extraordinary sencr of venomous personal attacks, t csth Anonymous, from all parts of the country. Here is a sample of the abusive correspondence, which was posted ir ■i. small town in Renfrewshire:—

“Read this, you dirty hound, you have battened on aspirants to the profession for 25 years, and now, when many pupils who have wasted then ■guineas in your wretched classes am lighting for right and justice, you an icting the traitor, with motives wide: ire only too plain. Have you not the horse-sense to see that such a movenent under such an organision sec rotary is bound to fail ?’ Nothing that is rotten can last. Your action shout ,-ou in your true colours, and makot- 1 certain what men have Jong suspected. Slow, look here, Mend your ways, 01 by I’ll come into your den one lay and Hog you with the biggest lorsewhip money can buy. Yen an i dirty little rat-faced, bald-headed ‘‘bander snatcher,” and may you dr in a ditch.—Yours, X

Another communication, posted ir Edinburgh, unstamped, and enclosed in an envelope bearing a border of leep mooring, reads:— ‘‘Dr. Knight,—Unless you give over vt once everything to do with the Insurance Bill we have determined tc have the students attending your classes at once leave you. We, bein': nodical students in Edinburgh, and going to practice as doctors afterward:: will not have our practice spoiled by you and your Insurance Bill. In r few days you will bo mobbed by tin nodical students in Edinburgh. You ire not what a tutor should be. —Believe us the , Medical Students.” The name of an institutions is appended. Quite a shoal of postcards have beer; received. In most cases they are adIressed “Blackleg Knight,” and he low are two typical specimens. The 'irst bears a Manchester address, and the other one purports to come from i suburb of the same city. “Dear Sir, —Please add my name tr your list of medical blacklegs. Any I‘rty work done.—Yours, Dr. A. Swine.” The other read: “Please add my name to your list of scum. I have been a blackleg fo; years, and I understand the job well.” Some of the other communications Dr. Knight assured a special corre spondeut of the Daily News an< Leader (who has seen the originals o' the letters), were even more offensive