There has been an attempt in Illinois to prosecute a German midwife, for practising her vocation contrary to the new medical laws; whereupon writes as follows in the Chicago Tribune:
It is an open secret that this bill was framed for the express purpose of
enabling these worthy M. D.'s to put their thumb-screws on the Metaphysicians. Before undertaking this on any extensive scale, would it not be well for them to consult some of the patients of these Metaphysicians? They will find that these Metaphysicians are not only people who are above the average intelligence, but that their practice is mainly among the educated classes. As one writer says: "Their metaphysical jargon does not attract the simple and illiterate." Nor is it any sign of superiority, for the Regulars to call them hard names, make faces at them, and want to wager that they can not cure cancers or replace an amputated leg. The Regulars are too painfully aware that hundreds of women, who have been a source of constant revenue to them for years, are entirely cured of what the doctors now claim were imaginary ills; and yet the husbands of these women know that the regular yearly bills of the medical attendants were anything but imaginary. It is quite possible that these husbands may have something to say when these medical Don Quixotes enter upon their crusade against these women, who are so persistent in curing patients irregularly.
