ARTICLE IV.-DUTIES OF PHYSICIANS IN CASES OF

INTERFERENCE

CRITICISM TO BE AVOIDED

Section 1.-The physician, in his intercourse with a patient under the care of another physician, should observe the strictest caution and reserve; should give no disingenuous hints relative to the nature and treatment of the patient's disorder; nor should the course of conduct of the physician, directly or indirectly, tend to diminish the trust reposed in the attending physician.

SOCIAL CALLS ON PATIENT OF ANOTHER PHYSICIAN

Section 2.-A physician should avoid making social calls on those who are under the professional care of other physicians without the knowledge and consent of the attendant. Should such a friendly visit be made, there should be no inquiry relative to the nature of the disease or comment upon the treatment of the case, but the conversation should be on subjects other than the physical condition of the patient.

SERVICES TO PATIENT OF ANOTHER PHYSICIAN

Section 3.-A physician should never take charge of or prescribe for a patient who is under the care of another physician, except in an emergency, until after the other physician has relinquished the case or has been properly dismissed.

CRITICISM TO BE AVOIDED

Section 4.-When a physician does succeed another physician in the charge of a case, he should not make comments on or insinuations regarding the practice of the one who preceded him. Such comments or insinuations tend to lower the esteem of the patient for the medical profession and so react against the critic.

EMERGENCY CASES

Section 5.-When a physician is called in an emergency and finds that he has been sent for because the family attendant is not at hand, or when a physician is asked to see another physi

cian's patient because of an aggravation of the disease, he should provide only for the patient's immediate need and should withdraw from the case on the arrival of the family physician after he has reported the condition found and the treatment administered.

WHEN SEVERAL PHYSICIANS ARE SUMMONED

Section 6.-When several physicians have been summoned in a case of sudden illness or of accident, the first to arrive should be considered the physician in charge. However, as soon as the exigencies of the case permit, or on the arrival of the acknowledged family attendant or the physician the patient desires to serve him, the first physician should withdraw in favor of the chosen attendant; should the patient or his family wish some one other than the physician known to be the family physician to take charge of the case the patient should advise the family physician of his desire. When, because of sudden illness or accident, a patient is taken to a hospital, the patient should be returned to the care of his known family physician as soon as the condition of the patient and the circumstances of the case warrant this transfer.

A COLLEAGUE'S PATIENT

Section 7.-When a physician is requested by a colleague to care for a patient during his temporary absence, or when, because of an emergency, he is asked to see a patient of a colleague, the physician should treat the patient in the same manner and with the same delicacy as he would have one of his own patients cared for under similar circumstances. The patient should be returned to the care of the attending physician as soon as possible.

RELINQUISHING PATIENT TO REGULAR ATTENDANT

Section 8.-When a physician is called to the patient of another physician during the enforced absence of that physician, the patient should be relinquished on the return of the latter.

SUBSTITUTING IN OBSTETRIC WORK

Section 9.-When a physician attends a woman in labor in the absence of another who has been engaged to attend, such

physician should resign the patient to the one first engaged, upon his arrival; the physician is entitled to compensation for the professional services he may have rendered.

ARTICLE V.-DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PHYSICIANS

ARBITRATION

Section 1.-Whenever there arises between physicians a grave difference of opinion which cannot be promptly adjusted, the dispute should be referred for arbitration to a committee of impartial physicians, preferably the Board of Censors of a component county society of the American Medical Association.

ARTICLE VI.-COMPENSATION

LIMITS OF GRATUITOUS SERVICE

Section 1.-The poverty of a patient and the mutual professional obligation of physicians should command the gratuitous services of a physician. But institutions endowed by societies, and organizations for mutual benefit, or for accident, sickness and life insurance, or for analogous purposes, should be accorded no such privileges.

CONTRACT PRACTICE

Section 2.-It is unprofessional for a physician to dispose of his services under conditions that make it impossible to render adequate service to his patient or which interfere with reasonable competition among the physicians of a community. To do this is detrimental to the public and to the individual physician, and lowers the dignity of the profession.

SECRET DIVISION OF FEES CONDEMNED

Section 3.-It is detrimental to the public good and degrading to the profession, and therefore unprofessional, to give or to receive a commission. It is also unprofessional to divide a fee for medical advice or surgical treatment, unless the patient or his next friend is fully informed as to the terms of the transaction. The patient should be made to realize that a proper

fee should be paid the family physician for the service he renders in determining the surgical or medical treatment suited to the condition, and in advising concerning those best qualified to render any special service that may be required by the patient.

CHAPTER III

THE DUTIES OF THE PROFESSION TO THE

PUBLIC

PHYSICIANS AS CITIZENS

Section 1.-Physicians, as good citizens and because their professional training specially qualifies them to render this service, should give advice concerning the public health of the community. They should bear their full part in enforcing its laws and sustaining the institutions that advance the interests of humanity. They should cooperate especially with the proper authorities in the administration of sanitary laws and regulations. They should be ready to counsel the public on subjects relating to sanitary police, public hygiene and legal medicine.

PHYSICIANS SHOULD ENLIGHTEN PUBLIC

DUTIES IN EPIDEMICS

Section 2.-Physicians, especially those engaged in public health work, should enlighten the public regarding quarantine regulations; on the location, arrangement and dietaries of hospitals, asylums, schools, prisons and similar institutions; and concerning measures for the prevention of epidemic and contagious diseases. When an epidemic prevails, a physician must continue his labors for the alleviation of suffering people, without regard to the risk to his own health or life or to financial return. At all times, it is the duty of the physician to notify the properly constituted public health authorities of every case of communicable disease under his care, in accordance with the laws, rules and regulations of the health authorities of the locality in which the patient is.

PUBLIC WARNED

Section 3.-Physicians should warn the public against the devices practised and the false pretensions made by charlatans which may cause injury to health and loss of life.

PHARMACISTS

Section 4.-By legitimate patronage, physicians should recognize and promote the profession of pharmacy; but any pharmacist, unless he be qualified as a physician, who assumes to prescribe for the sick, should be denied such countenance and support. Moreover, whenever a druggist or pharmacist dispenses deteriorated or adulterated drugs, or substitutes one remedy for another designated in a prescription, he thereby forfeits all claims to the favorable consideration of the public and physicians.

THE OATH OF HIPPOCRATES, THE FATHER OF MEDICINE

"I swear by Apollo, the physician, and Aesculapius, and Health, and All-heal, and all the gods and goddesses, that, according to my ability and judgment, I will keep this Oath and this stipulation to reckon him who taught me this art equally dear to me as my parents, to share my substance with him, and relieve his necessities if required; to look upon his off-spring on the same footing as my own brothers, and teach them this Art, if they wish to learn it, without fee or stipulation; and that by precept, lecture and every mode of instruction, I will impart a knowledge of the Art to my own sons, and those of my teachers, and to the disciples bound by a stipulation and oath, according to the law of medicine, and to none others. I will follow that system of regimen, which, according to my ability and judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patients, and abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous. I will give no deadly medicine to anyone if asked, nor suggest any such counsel; and in like manner I will not give to a woman a pessary to produce abortion. With purity and holiness I will pass my life and practice my Art. I will not cut persons laboring under the stone, but will leave this to be done by men who are practitioners