"Should a doctor tell?" is an old controversy between the law and medicine, and the recent divorce court decision concerning it is arousing a good deal of pro test among those concerned.
The matter is to be discussed at the forthcoming meeting of the British Medical Association at Newcastle, and it is stated that the profession intends to ask that Parliament shall take measures to put the doctors on the same footing as the lawyers.
"The ruling given last week," said Dr. Cox, secretary to the British Medical Association, " if it is allowed to stand, will wipe out all the traditional doctrine. of secrecy as between doctor and patient.
"The result will be that people will not report either to the doc-for or to the medical officer of health. It will prevent people going to their doctors as they go now, in confidence, and the importance of this, in the treatment of venereal disease, is only too obvious."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.