gence should be granted to the caprices of the sick. Secrecy and delicacy should be strictly observed; and the familiar and confidential intercourse to which physicians are admitted, in their professional visits, should be guarded with the most scrupulous fidelity and honor.

SECRECY TO BE INVIOLATE.

SEC. 3. The obligation of secrecy extends beyond the period of professional services; none of the privacies of individual or domestic life, no infirmity of disposition or flaw of character observed during medical attendance, should ever be divulged by physicians, except when imperatively required by the laws of the state. The force of the obligation of secrecy is so great that physicians have been protected in its observance by courts of justice.

FREQUENCY OF VISITS.

SEC. 4.-Frequent visits to the sick are often requisite, since they enable the physician to arrive at a more perfect knowledge of the disease, and to meet promptly every change which may occur. Unnecessary visits are to be avoided, as they give undue anxiety to the patient; but to secure the patient against irritating suspense and disappointment the regular and periodical visits of the physician should be

made as nearly as possible at the hour when they may be reasonably expected by the patient.

HONESTY AND WISDOM IN PROGNOSIS.

SEC. 5.-Ordinarily, the physician should not be forward to make gloomy prognostications, but should not fail, on proper occasions, to give timely notice of dangerous manifestations to the friends of the patient; and even to the patient, if absolutely necessary. This notice, however, is at times so peculiarly alarming when given by the physician, that its deliverance may often be preferably assigned to another person of good judgment.

ENCOURAGEMENT OF PATIENTS.

SEC. 6.-The physician should be a minister of hope and comfort to the sick, since life may be lengthened or shortened not only by the acts, but by the words or manner of the physician, whose solemn duty is to avoid all utterances and actions having a tendency to discourage and depress the patient.

INCURABLE CASES NOT TO BE NEGLECTED.

SEC. 7.-The medical attendant ought not to abandon a patient because deemed incurable; for continued attention may be highly useful to the sufferer and comforting to the relatives,

even in the last period of the fatal malady, by alleviating pain and by soothing mental anguish.

JUDICIOUS COUNSEL TO PATIENTS.

SEC. 8. The opportunity which a physician has of promoting and strengthening the good resolutions of patients suffering under the consequences of evil conduct ought never to be neglected. Good counsels, or even remonstrances, will give satisfaction, not offense, if they be tactfully proffered and evince a genuine love of virtue, accompanied by a sincere interest in the welfare of the person to whom they are addressed.

CHAPTER II.

The Duties of Physicians to Each Other and to the Profession at Large.

ARTICLE I.-DUTIES FOR THE SUPPORT OF PROFESSIONAL CHARACTER.

OBLIGATION TO MAINTAIN THE HONOR OF THE

PROFESSION.

SECTION 1.-Everyone on entering the profession, and thereby becoming entitled to full professional fellowship, incurs an obligation to uphold its dignity and honor, to exalt its standing and to extend the bounds of its usefulness. It is inconsistent with the principles of medical science and it is incompatible with honorable standing in the profession for physicians to designate their practice as based on an exclusive dogma or sectarian system of medicine.

OBSERVATION OF PROFESSIONAL RULES.

SEC. 2.-The physician should observe strictly such laws as are instituted for the government of the members of the profession; should honor the fraternity as a body; should endeavor to promote the science and art of medicine, and

should entertain a due respect for those seniors who, by their labors, have contributed to its advancement.

DUTY TO JOIN MEDICAL ORGANIZATION.

SEC. 3.-Every physician should identify himself with the organized body of his profession as represented in the community in which he resides. The organization of local or county medical societies, where they do not exist, should be effected, so far as practicable. Such county societies, constituting as they do the chief element of strength in the organization of the profession, should have the active support of their members and should be made instruments for the cultivation of fellowship, for the exchange of professional experience, for the advancement of medical knowledge, for the maintenance of ethical standards, and for the promotion in general of the interests of the profession and the welfare of the public.

COUNTY SOCIETIES TO AFFILIATE WITH HIGHER

ORGANIZATIONS.

SEC. 4.-All county medical societies thus organized ought to place themselves in affiliation with their respective state associations, and these, in turn, with the American Medical Association.