3. The same circumspection and reserve should be observed when, from motives of business or friendship, a physician is prompt. ed to visit an individual who is under the direction of another practitioner. Indeed, such visits should be avoided, except under peculiar circumstances; and when they are made, no particular inquiries should be instituted relative to the nature of the disease, or the remedies employed, but the topics of conversation should be as foreign to the case as circumstances will admit.

§ 4. A physician ought not to take charge of or prescribe for a patient who has recently

been under the care of another member of the faculty in the same illness, except in cases of sudden emergency, or in consultation with the physician previously in attendance, or when the latter has relinquished the case, or been regularly notified that his services are no longer desired. Under such circumstances, no unjust and illiberal insinuations should be

thrown out in relation to the conduct or prac tice previously pursued, which should be justified as far as candor and regard for truth and probity will permit; for it often happens that patients become dissatisfied when they do not experience immediate relief, and, as many diseases are naturally protracted, the want of success, in the first stage of treatment, affords no evidence of a lack of professional knowledge and skill.

5. When a physician is called to an urgent case, because the family attendant is not at hand, he ought, unless his assistance in consultation be desired, to resign the care of the patient to the latter immediately on his arrival.

§ 6. It often happens, in cases of sudden illness or of recent accidents and injuries, owing to the alarm and anxiety of friends, that a number of physicians are simultaneously sent for. Under these circumstances, courtesy should assign the patient to the first who

arrives, who should select from those present any additional assistance that he may deem necessary. In all such cases, however, the practitioner who officiates should request the family physician, if there be one, to be called, and, unless his further attendance be requested, should resign the case to the latter on his arrival.

§ 7. When a physician is called to the patient of another practitioner, in consequence of the sickness or absence of the latter, he ought, on the return or recovery of the regular attendant, and with the consent of the patient, to surrender the case.

[The, expression, "Patient of another Practitioner,” is understood to mean a patient who may have been under the charge of another practitioner at the time of the attack of sick

ess, or departure from home of the latter, or who may have called for his attendance during his absence or sickness, or in any manner given it to be understood that he

regarded the said physician as his regular medical attendant.]

§ 8. A physician, when visiting a sick person in the country, may be desired to see a neighboring patient who is under the regular direction of another physician, in consequence of some sudden change or aggravation of symptoms.

The conduct to be pursued on

such an occasion is to give advice adapted to present circumstances; to interfere no further than is absolutely necessary with the general plan of treatment; to assume no fu ture direction, unless it be expressly desired; and, in this last case, to request an immediate consultation with the practitioner previously employed.

§ 9. A wealthy physician should not give advice gratis to the affluent; because his doing so is an injury to his professional brethren. The office of a physician can never be supported as an exclusively beneficent one and it is defrauding, in some degree, the com

mon funds for its support, when fees are dis pensed with which might justly be claimed.

§ 10. When a physician who has been en gaged to attend a case of midwifery is absent, and another is sent for, if delivery is accomplished during the attendance of the latter, he is entitled to the fee, but should resign the patient to the practitioner first engaged.

ART. VI. Of differences between physicians.

§ 1. Diversity of opinion and opposition of interest, may, in the medical as in other professions, sometimes occasion controversy, and even contention. Whenever such cases unfortunately occur, and cannot be immediately terminated, they should be referred to the arbitration of a sufficient number of physicians, or a court-medical.

2. As peculiar reserve must be maintained by physicians toward the public, in regard to professional matters, and as there exist nu