Chapter 313. To regulate the practice of medicine and surgery, to license physicians and surgeons, and to punish persons violating the provisions thereof in the District of Columbia
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CHAP. 313.— An Act To regulate the practice of medicine and surgery, to license physicians and surgeons, and to punish persons violating the provisions thereof in the District of Columbia.June 3, 1896. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,* That there shall be, and is District of Columbia. Board of medical supervisors created. hereby, created a board of medical supervisors of the District of Columbia, which shall consist of the presidents of the three boards of medical examiners hereinafter provided for and two persons, not physicians, one of whom shall be learned in the law, to be appointed by the Commissioners of the District of Columbia, each for a period of three years, or until his successor is appointed: *Provided,* That not *Provisos.* Representation of different medical systems. more than two members of the board of supervisors shall be adherents of any one system of medical practice: *And provided further,* That said Commissioners may remove, after due notice and hearing, any member of said board for neglect of duty or other just cause, and that in case of the death, resignation, or removal of any member the vacancy for Vacancies, etc. the unexpired term of said member shall be filled in the same manner as other appointments are made.
Sec. 2. That the said board of medical supervisors shall elect a Officers. Regulations. president, a vice-president, and a secretary. Said board shall make, subject to the approval of the Commissioners of the District of Columbia, such regulations as may be necessary to carry into effect the provisions of this Act. Said board shall hold such meetings as may be necessary for the transaction of business. Said board shall supervise all examinations provided for in this Act, and shall issue all licenses to Licenses to practice. practice medicine and surgery or midwifery in the District of Columbia.
Said board shall keep an official record of its meetings, also an Record, etc. official register of all applicants for examination for licenses to practice medicine and surgery in the District of Columbia. Said register shall Register. show the name, age, place and duration of residence of each candidate, the time he or she has spent in medical study, in or out of medical schools, and the names and locations of all medical schools which have granted said applicant any degree or certificate of attendance upon lectures in medicine.
Said register shall also show whether said applicant was rejected or licensed under this Act. Said register shall be prima facie evidence of all matters contained therein. The secretary Secretary. aforesaid may be elected by said board from others than its own members; said secretary shall also act as treasurer, and shall give such bond as may be required by the Commissioners of the District of Columbia; said secretary shall have the power to administer oaths upon such matters as pertain to the business of said board; said secretary shall mail to the address of each applicant a notice of the time and place of examination, not less than seven days before the examination, and at a longer period if requested by the applicant at the time of making application.
Sec. 3. That from and after the passage of this Act all persons Examinations for license to practice medicine and surgery. desiring to practice medicine and surgery in any of their branches in the District of Columbia shall apply to said board of medical supervisors for a license to do so. Applicants shall submit to examination upon the following-named branches, to wit: Anatomy, physiology, chemistry, pathology, materia medica and therapeutics, hygiene, histology, practice of medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, diseases of the eye and the ear, medical jurisprudence, and such other branches as said board shall deem advisable.
Each applicant shall be certified by said board for examination as speedily as possible to the board of medical examiners whose members are adherents to the system of medicine which said applicant desires to practice; but said board shall Qualifications. not certify for examination any applicant until satisfactory proof is furnished that he or she is of good moral character and over twenty-one years of age, nor until he or she has presented a diploma conferring upon him or her the degree of doctor of medicine, issued by some medical college authorized by law to confer such degree: *Provided,* That said *Proviso.* Diplomas, etc. diploma, if issued prior to July first, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, 199 shall be accompanied by satisfactory evidence that said applicant has studied medicine and surgery for not less than three years prior to the issue thereof, and if issued subsequent to June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, shall be accompanied by satisfactory evidence that the applicant has studied medicine and surgery for not less than four years prior to the issue of said diploma.
All examinations shall be both theoretical and practical and of sufficient severity to test a candidate’s fitness to practice medicine and surgery. Sec. 4. That said application for a license to practice medicine and Applications. surgery in the District of Columbia shall be made to the secretary of said board of medical supervisors upon a form prescribed by said board, and shall be accompanied by a fee of ten dollars. Each application Fee. shall be in the hands of said secretary not less than two weeks before the day set for examination, and any application may be rejected for refusal to furnish any of the information called for, or for other irregularity.
All applications shall be kept on file by said secretary. Sec. 5. That immediately after the passage of this Act the Commissioners Boards of medical examiners. of the District of Columbia shall appoint three boards of medical examiners, one to be known as the board of medical examiners of the Regular system. District of Columbia, and to be composed of five physicians in good standing, adherents to the regular system of medical practice; one to Homeopathic system. be known as the board of homeopathic medical examiners of the District of Columbia, and to be composed of five physicians in good standing, adherents to the homeopathic system of medical practice, to be selected from a list of not less than ten names, submitted by a majority vote at some regular meeting of the Washington Homeopathic Medical Society, and one to be known as the board of eclectic medical examiners Eclectic system. of the District of Columbia, to be composed of five physicians in good standing, adherents to the eclectic system of medical practice, to be selected from a list of not less than ten names, submitted by a majority vote at some regular meeting of the Eclectic Medical Society of the District of Columbia.
Of the members of each board first appointed, one shall be appointed to serve one year, two to serve two years, and two to serve three years, and thereafter each member of each board shall be appointed to serve three years, or until his successor is appointed: *Provided,* That no member of either of said boards shall *Provisos.* Qualification of members. have been engaged in the practice of medicine and surgery in the District of Columbia for less than five years at the time of his appointment: *And provided further,* That in event of the failure of the Washington Appointment of homeopathic and eclectic boards.
Homeopathic Medical Society or of the Eclectic Medical Society of the District of Columbia, after fifteen days’ notice by the Commissioners of the District of Columbia, to submit the list of names aforesaid, said Commissioners may appoint the members of the board of homeopathic medical examiners or of the board of eclectic medical examiners without restriction as to nomination by the society in default: *And provided Removal, etc. further,* That said Commissioners may at any time remove any member of either of the boards named in this Act for neglect of duty or other just cause, and that in case of the death, resignation, or removal of any member the vacancy for the unexpired term of said member shall be filled in the same manner as other appointments are made.
Sec. 6. That each member of said boards of medical examiners of the Board officers, meetings, etc. District of Columbia shall, before entering upon the discharge of his duties, take an oath to administer fairly and impartially the provisions of this Act. Each board shall elect from its own members a president and a secretary. Each board shall hold a meeting for examination in the city of Washington on the second Thursday in January, April, July, and October of each year, and continuing so long as may be necessary to examine all applicants, and other meetings shall be held at such times as the board of medical supervisors shall direct.
Each of said boards shall examine, at the meeting immediately following the receipt of the proper certificates from the board of medical supervisors, all applicants for licenses to practice medicine and surgery in the District of Columbia so certified. 200 Sec. 7. That the several boards of medical examiners shall, not less Examiners to submit examination questions to supervisors. than one week prior to each examination, submit to the board of medical supervisors of the District of Columbia questions for thorough examinations in anatomy, physiology, chemistry, pathology, materia medica and therapeutics, hygiene, histology, practice of medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, diseases of the eye and the ear, medical jurisprudence, and such other branches as said board of medical supervisors may direct.
From the lists of questions so submitted said board Selection for examination. of medical supervisors shall select the questions for each examination, and such questions shall be the same for all candidates, except that in the departments of therapeutics, practice of medicine, and materia medica the questions shall be in harmony with the system of medicine selected by the candidate. Said examinations shall be conducted orally Examinations. and in writing, in accordance with the rules and regulations prescribed by the board of medical supervisors, and shall embrace the subjects as stated in section three of this Act.
An official report of the result of each examination, signed by the president and the secretary and each acting member of the board of medical examiners conducting such examination, stating the average attained by each candidate in each branch, the general average, and the result of the examination, whether successful or unsuccessful, shall be transmitted to the board of medical supervisors within fifteen days from the date of such examination. Said report shall embrace all the examination papers, questions, and answers thereto.
All such examination papers shall be kept for reference and inspection for a period of not less than five years. Sec. 8. That if in the opinion of a majority of the board of medical Issue of licenses to practice. supervisors, after a careful examination of the report of the board of medical examiners by which any applicant was examined, said applicant has fairly and successfully passed such examination as hereinbefore provided for, the board of medical supervisors of the District of Columbia shall, as soon thereafter as possible, issue to him a license signed by the president and the secretary of said board and attested by the seal of the District of Columbia, which license shall entitle said applicant, after it is registered as hereinafter provided, to practice medicine and surgery in the District of Columbia: *Provided,* That a license *Provisos.* License to present registered practitioners free. shall be issued upon application, free of cost and without examination, to each physician who is registered at the health office of the District of Columbia at the time of the passage of this Act, and to physicians Physicians from States having similar laws. who may change their residence to the District of Columbia from any State or Territory where medical laws and medical examining boards exist, the presentation of a certificate or license from a medical examining board, if found upon due inquiry to be true and genuine, being sufficient evidence of right to registration and certification under the provisions of this Act: *Provided,* That the medical laws and examining Register of licenses. boards of such States and Territories grant equal rights and recognition to the licentiates of the board herein created.
All licenses issued by said board shall be numbered consecutively, and a register shall be kept by the secretary showing the number of each license, the date of issue, and to whom issued. Sec. 9. That the board of medical supervisors of the District of Midwifery regulations. Columbia shall make, subject to the approval of the Commissioners of said District, such regulations as may be necessary to determine the qualifications of women desiring hereafter to commence the practice of midwifery in the District of Columbia, and shall issue licenses to such as are, after examination, found qualified; but no fee shall be charged for the examination of any applicant for such licenses, and no applicant who has been rejected shall be reexamined within one year from such rejection: *Provided,* That a license shall be issued upon application, *Proviso.* License to registered midwives. free of cost and without examination, to each midwife registered at the health office of the District of Columbia at the time of the passage of this Act.
Sec. 10. That the board of medical supervisors of the District of Refusal to grant, and revoking licenses. Columbia may, by a vote of four members, refuse to grant or may revoke 201 a license, and may cause the name of any person to be removed from Causes. the record of the supreme court of the District of Columbia and from the register of the health office for any of the following causes, to wit: The employment of fraud or deception in passing the examinations provided for in this Act, chronic inebriety, the practice of criminal abortion, conviction of crime involving moral turpitude, or of unprofessional or dishonorable conduct.
In complaints under this section the Hearings. accused shall be furnished with a copy of the complaint and given a hearing before said board in person or by attorney, and witnesses may be heard for and on behalf of the accused, and for and on behalf of the said board. Appeal from the decision of said board may be taken to the court of appeals of the District of Columbia, and the decision of said court shall be final. Said board may at any time within two Reissue of license. years from the refusal or revocation of a license, or the cancellation of registration under this section, by a vote of four members, issue, without examination, a new license to the person so affected, restoring to him or her all the rights and privileges of which he or she had been deprived by said board.
Sec. 11. That any person receiving a license as hereinbefore provided Record in office of clerk of supreme court. shall have it recorded in the office of the clerk of the supreme court of the District of Columbia within three months from the date of said license, and the place and date of record shall be certified thereon by said clerk; and the holder of the license shall pay to the clerk of said court a fee of fifty cents for making the record. The holder of said Health office register. license shall, after the same has been recorded, exhibit the same at the health office, and shall register, in a book provided for that purpose, his or her name and address.
Whenever a license is revoked by said board of medical supervisors the secretary thereof shall report that fact in writing to the clerk of said court and to the health officer of the District of Columbia, who shall thereupon cancel such registration. Sec. 12. That this Act shall not apply to commissioned surgeons of Persons exempted from license, etc. the United States Army, Navy, or Marine-Hospital Service, nor to regularly licensed physicians and surgeons in actual consultation from other States or Territories, nor to regularly licensed physicians and surgeons actually called from other States or Territories to attend specified cases in the District of Columbia, nor to the treatment of any case of actual emergency, nor to the practice of massage or the so called Swedish movement cure, nor to the use of ordinary domestic remedies without fee, gift, or consideration of any kind.
Sec. 13. That from and after the passage of this Act any person Penalty for violating laws, etc. practicing medicine and surgery or midwifery in the District of Columbia, or who shall publicly profess to do so, without first having obtained from the board of medical supervisors of the District of Columbia a license and registered the same as herein provided, or in violation of any of the provisions of this Act or any of the rules and regulations made by authority conferred herein, or after his license or registration, has been canceled by order of said board of medical supervisors of the District of Columbia, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished for each offense by a fine of not less than fifty nor more than five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment in the District jail for a period of not less than ten nor more than ninety days, or by both such fine and imprisonment.
It shall be the duty of the United States district attorney for the District of Columbia to prosecute all violations of the provisions of this Act. Sec. 14. That the secretary of the board of medical supervisors shall Expenses of board of supervisors, etc. be paid for taking testimony the same fee that is allowed to an examiner in chambers for the same service. The expense of said board and of the examinations shall be paid from the license fees herein provided for; and if any surplus remain on the thirtieth day of June of each year the members of the board of medical supervisors appointed as such shall be paid such reasonable compensation as the Commissioners of the District of Columbia may determine, and any balance then remaining shall be divided among the three boards of medical examiners 202FIFTY-FOURTH CONGRESS.
Sess. I. Chs. 313, 314. 1896. in proportion to the number of candidates examined, each member of each board of medical examiners to receive such part of the entire amount paid as that board itself shall determine. Sec. 15. That nothing in this Act shall be construed to conflict with Dentistry not affected. Vol. 27, p. 42. an Act for the regulation of the practice of dentistry in the District of Columbia, approved June sixth, eighteen hundred and ninety-two, nor to interfere with graduates of standard dental colleges, registered under the provisions of said Act, in the exercise of their profession to the extent and within the limits of the curriculum of such standard dental colleges.
Sec. 16. That all acts or parts of acts, general or special, not in Repeal. accordance with the provisions of this Act, be, and are hereby, repealed. Approved, June 3, 1896.