MISSISSIPPI-STATUTES.

§ 165. There are no statutes regulating the practice of physic or surgery in this State, and licensed and unlicensed practitioners stand on an equal footing.1

Administering Medicines while Intoxicated.-"If any physician, or other person, while in a state of intoxication, shall, without a design to effect death, administer, or cause to be administered, any poison, drug, or other medicine, or shall perform any surgical operation on another, which shall cause the death of such other, he shall be deemed guilty of manslaughter.""

MISSOURI-STATUTES.

The Revised Statutes, adopted March 20, 1866, having omitted all previous statutes prescribing regulations for the practice of medicine and surgery, the same may be considered as free to all persons without regard to qualifications.

Labelling Poisons.-So much of the 38th section (cap. 206) of the R. S. which makes it a penal offence to sell or deliver any poison without labelling the same, does not extend to practicing physicians delivering the same, with a prescription for the use of the article.

1 Revised Code 1857, and Session Laws since.

2 Revised Code 1857, 8 34, art. 181.

NEW JERSEY-STATUTES.

§ 166. The "Act to incorporate Medical Societies, for the purpose of regulating the practice of physic and surgery in this State," passed Jan. 28, 1830, was, together with all its supplements, repealed by the Act of March 14, 1864, and this latter substituted for it. By this act, simply re-organizing the Medical Society of New Jersey, the section (§ 12), in the preceding statute of 1830, making it a penal offence to practice physic or surgery without a diploina from the Medical Society of the State, is entirely swept away, and the right to practice and recover for one's services as a physician granted to all persons without distinction.

NEW YORK-STATUTES AND RULINGS.

§ 167. "§ 1. The twenty-second section of chapter fourteen, Tit. seven, part first of the R. S., and all laws of this State which prohibit any person from recovering, by suit or action, any debt or demand arising from the practice of physic or surgery, or a compensation for services. rendered in attending the sick, or in prescribing for the sick, are hereby repealed.1

"§ 2. The act entitled an Act concerning the practice of physic and surgery in this State, passed April 7, 1830, is hereby repealed.

"§ 3. No person shall be liable to any criminal prosecution, or to indictment, for practicing physic and surgery

1 An "Act in relation to the practice of physic and surgery," passed May 6, 1844.

without license, excepting in cases of malpractice, or gross ignorance, or immoral conduct in such practice.

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"§ 4. All and every person, not being a licensed physician, who shall practice, or attempt to practice physic or surgery, or who shall prescribe for, or administer medicines or specifics to, or for the sick, shall be liable for damages, in cases of malpractice, as if such person were duly licensed to practice physic or surgery.

"§ 5. Any person, not being a licensed physician, who shall practice, or profess to practice physic or surgery, or shall prescribe medicines or specifics for the sick, and shall, in any Court having cognizance thereof, be convicted of gross ignorance, malpractice, or immoral conduct, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and liable to a fine of not less than fifty dollars, nor, not exceeding one thousand dollars, or imprisonment in the county jail not less than one month, nor exceeding twelve months, or both, in the discretion of the Court."

The above act very plainly discards all professional distinctions between licensed and unlicensed practitioners, and places them upon a common footing, except in the single case of " gross ignorance, malpractice or immoral conduct."

The "Act to incorporate Homeopathic medical societies," passed April 13, 1857, recites that they may be organized in the same manner as is provided in an act entitled "An Act to incorporate medical societies for the purpose of regulating the practice of physic and surgery in this State," passed April 10, 1813, thus placing this new system of medicine upon a legal equality with the old.

Manslaughter by Physicians." If any physician, while in a state of intoxication, shall, without a design to effect

death, administer any poison, drug or medicine, or do any other act to another person, which shall produce the death of such other, he shall be deemed guilty of manslaughter in the third degree.1

"If any physician or other person, while in a state of intoxication, shall prescribe any poison, drug or medicine to another person, which shall endanger the life of such other, he shall, upon conviction, be adjudged guilty of a misdemeanor."2

Of the Duties of Physicians and other persons.3-"It shall be the duty of each and every practicing physician in the city of New York :

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"§ 10. 1. Whenever required by the Metropolitan Board of Health of said city, to report at such times, in such forms as said Board may prescribe, the number of persons attacked with any pestilential, contagious, or infectious disease, attended by such physicians for the twenty-four hours next preceding, and the number of persons attended by such physician who shall have died. in said city, during the twenty-four hours next preceding such report of any such pestilential, contagious, or infectious disease.

"2. To report in writing to the (Metropolitan Board of Health) every patient he shall have, laboring under any pestilential, contagious, or infectious disease, and within twenty-four hours after he shall ascertain or suspect the nature of the disease.

1 R. S. part 4, chap. 1, tit. 2, art. 3, § 17.

2 R. S. (5 ed.) part 4, tit. 6, chap. 1, art. 3, 24.

3 The Act of February 26, 1866, creating the Metropolitan Sanitary District and Board of Health, abolished the offices of City Inspector, Commissioners of Health, and all similar ones relating to the public health in the City of New York. In whatever unrepealed statutes those names occur, therefore, the words "Metropolitan Board of Health" should be inserted in their stead, and I have substituted them accordingly.

"3. To report to the (Metropolitan Board of Health), when required, the death of any of his patients who shall have died of disease within twenty-four hours thereafter, and to state in such report the specific name and type of such disease."

"§ 27. Every practicing physician who shall refuse or neglect to perform the duties enjoined on him by the tenth section of this title, shall be considered guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction shall be fined for each offence, in a sum not exceeding $250, or be imprisoned for a term not exceeding six months."

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§ 1. It shall be lawful, in cities whose population exceeds thirty thousand inhabitants, to deliver to the professors and teachers in medical colleges and schools in this state, and for said professors and teachers to receive the remains or body of any deceased person for the purposes of medical and surgical study; provided, that said remains shall not have been regularly interred, and shall not have been desired for interment by any relative or friend of said deceased person within twenty-four hours after death; provided, also, that the remains of no person who may be known to have relatives or friends, shall be so delivered or received, without the consent of said relatives or friends; and provided, that the remains of no one detained for debt, or as a witness, or on suspicion of crime, or of any traveler, nor of any person who shall have expressed a desire in his or her last sickness that his or her body may be interred, shall be delivered or received as aforesaid, but shall be buried in the usual manner; and provided, also, that in case the remains of any person so delivered or received, shall be subsequently claimed by any surviving relative or friend, they shall be given up to said relative or friend for interment.

R. S. part 1, ch. 14, tit. 3, art. 2, % 10.