(3) In case of acute, dangerous or obscure illness, the consulting physician should continue his visits at such intervals as may be deemed necessary by the patient or his friends, by him or by the attending physician.

"(4) The utmost punctuality should be observed in the visits of physicians when they are to hold consultations; but as professional engagements may interfere or delay one of the parties, the physician who first arrives should wait for his associates a reasonable period, after which the consultation should be considered as postponed to a new appointment. If it be the attending physician who is present, he will of course see the patient and prescribe, but if it be the consulting physician he should retire, except in an emergency or when he has been called from a considerable distance, in which latter case he may examine the patient and give his opinion in writing and under seal, to be delivered to his associates : Id.

As to the relations of physicians to each other the code provides as follows:

"(1) All practitioners of medicine, their wives and children, while under paternal care, are en

titled to the gratuitous services of any one or more of the faculty near them whose assistance may be desired. Gratuitous attendance cannot, however, be expected from physicians called from a distance, nor need it be deemed obligatory when opposed by both the circumstances and the preferences of the patient.

"(2) The affairs of life, the pursuit of health and the various accidents and contingencies to which a medical man is peculiarly exposed may require him temporarily to withdraw from his duties to his patients and to request some of his professional brethren to officiate for him. Compliance with this request is an act of courtesy which should always be performed with the utmost consideration for the interests and character of the family physician, and when exercised for a short period, all the pecuniary obligations of such service should be awarded to him. But if a member of the profession neglect his business in quest of pleasure or amusement, he cannot be considered as entitled to the advantages of the frequent and long continued exercise of this fraternal courtesy without awarding to the physicians who officiated the fees arising from the discharge of his professional duties.

"(4) In obstetrical and important surgical cases, which give rise to unusual fatigue, anxiety and responsibility, it is just that the fees accruing therefrom should be awarded to the physician who officiates.

'(5) Diversity of opinion and opposition of interest may, in the medical as well as in the other professions, 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, before appealing to a medical society, or the law, for settlement.

"(6) If medical controversies are brought before the public in newspapers or pamphlets by contending medical writers, and give rise to, or contain assertions or insinuations injurious to the personal character or professional qualifications of the parties, the effect is to lower, in the estimation of the public, not only the parties directly involved, but also the medical profession as a whole. Such publications should therefore be brought to the notice of the county societies having jurisdiction, and discipline inflicted, as the case may seem to require:" Trans. of Med. Soc. N. Y., 1882, pp. 74, 75.

STAN

In conclusion, it may be observed that similar codes or rules of medical ethics will be found in various other states. The author inserts those found in the Transactions of the Medical Society of New York; but these, in the main, are but the generally recognized rules of ethics observed by the respectable members of the profession, without the formal declaration of any positive rules, or the adoption of a code of ethics, requiring their observance.

APPENDIX.

OPINION AS TO THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF THE IOWA STATUTE REGULATING THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE."

Since the preparation of the preceding pages, the author's attention has been called to the opinion of Hon. C. C. Nourse, Attorney-General of Iowa, as to the constitutionality of the Iowa statute "Regulating the Practice of Medicine." The provisions of the act are set forth in the opinion, which is as follows:

"The act in question purports to be an exercise by the General Assembly of the 'police power of the state for the preservation of the health of the people,' and can be justified only, if at all, upon that ground. The principle provisions of the act are as follows:

"First. It requires every person within the state, who assumes the duties of a physician, surgeon or obstetrician, or who publicly professes cure or heal by any means whatsoever,' to

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