CHAPTER III. The Duties of the Profession to the Public. DUTIES AS TO PUBLIC HYGIENE, ETC. SECTION 1.-As good citizens it is the duty of physicians to be very vigilant for the welfare of the community, and to bear their part in sustaining its laws, institutions and burdens; especially should they be ready to coöperate with the proper authorities in the administration and the observance of sanitary laws and regulations, and they should also be ever ready to give counsel to the public in relation to subjects especially appertaining to their profession, as on questions of sanitary police, public hygiene and legal medicine. ENLIGHTENMENT OF PUBLIC ON SANITARY MAT TERS.-DUTIES IN EPIDEMICS. SEC. 2. It is the province of physicians to enlighten the public in regard to quarantine regulations; to the location, arrangement and dietaries of hospitals, asylums, schools, prisons and similar institutions; in regard to measures for the prevention of epidemic and contagious diseases; and when pestilence prevails, it is their duty to face the danger, and to continue their labors for the alleviation of the suffering people, even at the risk of their own lives. PHYSICIANS AS WITNESSES. SEC. 3.-Physicians, when called on by legally constituted authorities, should always be ready to enlighten inquests and courts of justice on subjects strictly medical, such as involve questions relating to sanity, legitimacy, murder by poison or other violent means, and various other subjects embraced in the science of medical jurisprudence. It is but just, however, for them to expect due compensation for their services. ENLIGHTENMENT OF THE PUBLIC AS TO CHARLATANS. SEC. 4. It is the duty of physicians who are frequent witnesses of the great wrongs committed by charlatans and of the injury to health and even destruction of life caused by the use of their treatment, to enlighten the public on these subjects and to make known the injuries sustained by the unwary from the devices and pretensions of artful impostors. RELATIONS TO PHARMACISTS. SEC. 5. It is the duty of physicians to recognize and by legitimate patronage to promote the profession of pharmacy, on the skill and proficiency of which depends the reliability of remedies, but any pharmacist who, although educated in his own profession, is not a qualified physician, and who assumes to prescribe for the sick, ought not to receive such countenance and support. Any druggist or pharmacist who dispenses deteriorated or sophisticated drugs or who substitutes one remedy for another designated in a prescription ought thereby to forfeit the recognition and influence of physicians. INDEX TO PRINCIPLES OF ETHICS PAGE 20 Absence of physician, patients to be relin- Advertising, forms of, to be avoided. 11 Advice, emergency, duty of physician regarding. 21 Agreement regarding opinions. American Medical Association, county societies to. 8 16 relation of 10 Arbitration of differences. 21 Assisting unqualified persons to avoid legal 12 10 17 19 12 6 12 12 Association, state, relations of county societies Attending physicians, duty of consultant to. Boasting of cures and remedies unethical. Certificate of efficacy, duties of physicians re- Certificates of skill, use of, unethical. Character, professional, duty of supporting.. Compensation of physicians as witnesses. Confidential intercourse of physicians with pa- Conflict of opinion. Consultant, duty of, in emergency. Consultant to regard rights of attending physi- cian Consultations, discussions in, confidential. Consultations to be encouraged. 12 23 2223916336 1112 12 11 26 23 13 26 County societies, chief element in organization. 10 10 |