Medical Legislation in the Colony
of New Jersey
 

IAl
 

MORRIS H. SAFFRON

ATE in 1978 Columbia receix-ed as a gift from Dr. Bernard
Pacella a manuscript of unusual interest for the social

^^ as xxell as the medical historian of our country. This
document contains nothing less than the first set of laxvs knoxvn
to have been proposed by a medical society in North America for
the regulation of professional practice. In order to properly assess
the importance of this acquisition xve should say a few words about
the historical development of such legislation.

With the dissolution of the Roman Empire the guilds of Archi-
atri, state health officials xvhose duties included the control of
quackery, gradually ceased to function, so that during the ensuing
Dark xAges there xvas no central authority, except possibly the
Church, to concern itself xxith the quality of medical care. Con¬
ditions began to improx-e somewhat under the Carolingians with
the revival of medical education at Chartres and other cathedral
schools, but it xvas only at Salerno in 1140 under the enlightened
rule of the Normans that the first serious attempt was made to leg¬
islate against medical abuses. In 1224 that Stupor Mundi, Emperor
Frederick II of the Txx-o Sicilies, xvrote a remarkably "modern"
medical practice laxv covering in great detail the training, ethics,
examination and licensing of a physician. So stringent were the
penalties that this code imposed on offending "empiricks" that its
principles were adopted very slowly by other western nations. In¬
deed it was not until txvo centuries had elapsed before the F.nglish
Privy Council saw fit to inveigh against "unconnynge and un-
aproved practysours of fysik," and only in 1511 did Parliament
finally take some firm action against unlicensed practitioners. Un-

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