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COUNTY SOCIETIES ORGANIZED UNDER THE NEW CONSTITUTION AND BY-LAWS, ADOPTED AT SAN ANTONIO, FROM MAY 1,

TO OCTOBER 1, 1903.

COUNTY.

PRESIDENT.

SECRETARY.

MEMBERS

Johnson...... W. P. Alexander, Cleburne........ J. M. Huddleston, Cleburne...... 20

Hunt.......... W. C. Welch, Caddo Mills
Dallas......... V. P. Armstrong, Dallas.........
Ellis......... J. C. Loggins, Ennis......

M. L. Moody, Greenville......

Elbert Dunlap, Dallas..........

S. C. Gage, Ennis...........

30

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Galveston.... C. W. Trueheart, Galveston.................... J. C. Ralston, Galveston................. 30 Jefferson. W. W. Cunningham, Beaumont. Guy Reed, Beaumont ..........

.....

18

Palo Pinto... J. H. McCracken, Mineral Wells. C. B. Williams, Mineral Wells.. 13 Wilbarger... J. E. Dodson, Vernon.. .........

Jackson J. M. Richmond, Edna.........

J. B. Farrington, Vernon.............

O. K. Radkey, Edna..........

Hopkins...... A. B. Longino, Sulphur Springs.. W. R. Shook, Brashear.....

Jasper.....H. R. Hancock, Jasper........

Newton

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Tarrant I. L. Van Zandt, Fort Worth...... L. A. Barber, Fort Worth........ 32
Kaufman.... W. H. Monday, Terrell.......... W. J. Pollard, Kaufman........
Madison...... J. D. Jordan, Madisonville....................... A. H. Speer, Madisonville........ 10
Leon........... Sam R. Burroughs, Buffalo...... J. H. Joyce, Buffalo...........
Delta........ R. L. Combs, Cooper.....
C. C. Taylor, Cooper....

Bexar

T. T. Jackson, San Antonio........ T. P. Lloyd, San Antonio. Guadalupe... M. B. Grace, Seguin.................. D. A. Watson, Seguin........... Comal......... H. Leonards, New Braunfels...... A. H. Noster, New Braunfels... Val Verde... J. B. Moeur, Del Rio. ............. S. L. Boren, Del Rio Medina....... J. R. Evans, Devine............... J. T. Fitzsimon, Castroville..... Montgomery W. P. Powell, Willis... J. F. Collier, Conroe.......

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Grimes....... F. B. Johnston, Anderson........... B. H. Bennett, Anderson.....
Harris........
E. M. Armstrong, Houston..
Runnels...... Thos. A. Rape, Ballinger.......
Taylor......... T. B. Bass, Abilene..........................
Houston...... W. C. Lipscomb, Crockett....
Coleman...... Newt Long, Santa Anna....

PRINCIPLES OF MEDICAL ETHICS.

PREFACE.

At the annual meeting of the American Medical Association, held in New Orleans, the House of Delegates unanimously adopted, on May 7, 1903, the "Principles of Medical Ethics" recommended by its committee, and ordered that the following extract from the report of the Special Committee on Revision of the Code of Medical Ethics be printed as an explanatory preface to these "principles":

"The caption 'Principles of Medical Ethics' has been substituted for "Code of Medical Ethics.' Inasmuch as the American Medical Association may be conceived to hold a relation to the constituent State associations analogous to that of the United States through its constitution to the several States, the committee deemed it wiser to formulate the principles of medical ethics without definite reference to code or penalties. Large discretionary powers are thus left to the respective State and Territorial societies to form such codes and establish such rules for the professional conduct of their members as they may consider proper, provided, of course, that there shall be no infringement of the established ethical principles of this Association."

The American Medical Association promulgates as a suggestive and advisory document the following:

CHAPTER I.

THE DUTIES OF PHYSICIANS TO THEIR PATIENTS.

The Physician's Responsibility.

SECTION 1. Physicians should not only be ever ready to obey the calls of the sick and the injured, but should be mindful of the high character of their mission and of the responsibilities they must incur in the discharge of momentous duties. In their ministrations they should never forget that the comfort, the health and the lives of those entrusted to their care depend on skill, attention and fidelity. In deportment they should unite tenderness, cheerfulness and firmness, and thus inspire all sufferers with gratitude, respect and confidence. These observances are the more sacred

because, generally, the only tribunal to adjudge penalties for unkindness, carelessness or neglect is their own conscience.

Humanity, Delicacy and Secrecy Needed.

SEC. 2. Every patient committed to the charge of a physician should be treated with attention and humanity, and reasonable indulgence 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 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 a 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, as 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 maintnance 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.

Purity of Character and Morality Required.

SEC. 5. There is no profession from the members of which greater purity of character and a higher standard of moral excellence are required than the medical; and to attain such eminence is a duty every physician owes alike to the profession and to patients. It is due to the patients, as without it their respect and confidence can not be commanded; and to the profession, because no scientific attainments can compensate for the want of correct moral principles.

Temperance in all Things.

SEC. 6. It is incumbent on physicians to be temperate in all things, for the practice of medicine requires the unremitting exercise of a clear and vigorous understanding; and in emergencies—for which no physician should be unprepared-a steady hand, an acute eye and an unclouded mind are essential to the welfare and even to the life of a human being.

Advertising Methods to be Avoided.

SEC. 7. It is incompatible with honorable standing in the profession to resort to public advertisement or private cards inviting the attention of persons affected with particular diseases; to promise radical cures; to publish cases or operations in the daily prints, or to suffer such publications to be made; to invite laymen (other than relatives who may desire to be at hand) to be present at operations; to boast of cures and remedies; to adduce certificates of skill and success, or to employ any of the other methods of charlatans.

Patents and Secret Nostrums.

SEC. 8. It is equally derogatory to professional character for physicians to hold patents for any surgical instruments or medicines; to accept rebates on prescriptions or surgical appliances; to assist unqualified persons to

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