XI.-Judicial Council.

A Council, consisting of twenty-one members, shall be appointed by the Nominating Committee, whose duty it shall be to take cognizance of and decide all questions of an ethical or judicial character that may arise in connection with the Association. Of the twenty-one members of the Council first appointed, the seven first named in the list shall hold office one year, and the second seven named shåll hold office two years.

With these exceptions the term of office of members of the Council shall be three years, seven being appointed by the Nominating Committee annually.

The said Council shall organize by choosing a President and Secretary, and shall keep a permanent record of its proceedings. The decisions of said Council on all matters referred to it by the Association shall be final, and shall be reported to the Association at the earliest practicable moment.

All questions of a personal character, including complaints and protests, and all questions on credentials, shall be referred at once, after the report of the Committee of Arrangements or other presentation, to the Judicial Council, and without discussion.

In accordance with the provisions of this By-Law, the following persons were appointed:

Judicial Council.-Three years: Drs. W. Brodie, of Michigan; N. S. Davis, of Illinois; E. L. Howard, of Maryland; William O. Baldwin, of Alabama; H. W. Dean, of New York; J. P. Logan, of Georgia.*

Two years: Drs. L. S. Joynes, of Virginia; R. N. Todd, of Indiana; H. F. Askew, of Delaware; J. E. Morgan, of District of Columbia; Samuel Lilly, of New Jersey; S. N. Benham, of Pennsylvania; A. Dunlap, of Ohio.

One year: Drs. J. K. Bartlett, of Wisconsin; Edwin Powell, of Illinois; R. H. Gale, of Kentucky; S. Gratz Moses, of Missouri; J. C. Hughes, of Iowa; S. M. Bemiss, of Louisiana; J. R. Bronson, of Massachusetts.

The annual meeting for 1874 was held at Detroit, Michigan. The following officers were elected for the ensuing year:

President-W. K. Bowling, Tennessee.

Vice-Presidents-William Brodie, Michigan; J. J. Woodward, U. S. A.; H. W. Brown, Texas; H. D. Didama, New York.

Treasurer-Casper Wister, Pennsylvania. Librarian-William Lee, District of Columbia. Assistant Secretary-Will Walling, Louisville, Kentucky.

The Chairmen of Committees were appointed as follows:

Arrangements--Edward Richardson, Louisville. Prize Essays-J. Octerlooney, Kentucky. Publication F. G. Smith, Pennslyvania. Necrology S. C. Chew, Maryland.

John Morris, of Baltimore, was appointed a special committee on the use of pessaries, and John A. Octerlooney, of Kentucky, a special committee on cystic degeneration of the kidneys.

The five sections were organized for the coming year as follows:

Practice of Medicine, Materia Medica and Physiology-Austin Flint, New York, Chairman, and J. K. Bartlett, Wisconsin, Secretary.

Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children— W. H. Byford, Illinois, Chairman, and S. C. Busey, District of Columbia, Secretary.

Surgery and Anatomy-E. M. Moore, Rochester, Chairman, and T. S. Latimer, Maryland, Secretary. Medical Jurisprudence, Chemistry and Psychology— Jerome Cochrane, Alabama, Chairman, and G. A. Moses, Missouri, Secretary.

State Medicine and Public Hygiene-H. I. Bowditch, Massachusetts, Chairman, and H. B. Baker, Michigan, Secretary.

The new members of the Judicial Council, to serve for three years, are: J. K. Bartlett, Wisconsin; R. H. Gale, Kentucky; J. B. Johnson, Missouri; J. R. Bronson, Massachusetts; B. H. Catlin, Connecticut; Franklin Staples, Minnesota; W. T. Briggs, Tennessee. To fill a vacancy for two years, A. N. Tolley, South Carolina.

The next meeting was ordered to take place at Louisville, the first Tuesday in May.

Of the American Medical Association, Adopted May, 1847.

OF THE DUTIES OF PHYSICIANS TO THEIR PATIENTS, AND OF THE OBLIGATIONS OF PATIENTS

TO THEIR PHYSICIANS.

ART. I.-Duties of physicians to their patients.

§ 1. A physician should not only be ever ready to obey the calls of the sick, but his mind ought also to be imbued with the greatness of his mission, and the responsibility he habitually incurs in its discharge. Those obligations are the more deep and enduring, because there is no tribunal, other than his own conscience, to adjudge penalties for carelessness or neglect. Physicians should, therefore, minister to the sick with due impressions of the importance of their office; reflecting that the ease, the health, and the lives, of those committed to their charge, depend on their skill, attention, and fidelity. They should study, also, in their deportment, so to

unite tenderness with firmness, and condescension with authority, as to inspire the minds of their patients with gratitude, respect, and confidence.

§ 2. Every case committed to the charge of a physician should be treated with attention, steadiness, and humanity. Reasonable indulgence should be granted to the mental imbecility and caprices of the sick. Secrecy and delicacy, when required by peculiar circumstances, should be strictly observed; and the familiar and confidential intercourse to which physicians are admitted in their professional visits, should be used with discretion, and with the most scrupulous regard to fidelity and honor. The obligation of secrecy extends beyond the period of professional services; none of the privacies of personal and domestic life, no infirmity of disposition, or flaw of character, observed during professional attendance, should ever be divulged by the physician, except when he is imperatively required to do so. The force and necessity of this obligation are indeed so great, that professional men have, under certain circumstances, been protected in their observance of secrecy by courts of justice.

§ 3. Frequent visits to the sick are, in general, requisite, since they enable the physician to arrive at a more perfect knowledge of the disease—to meet promptly every change which may occur, and also