Board of Examiners.—There is a State board of medical examiners consisting of three members from each congressional district and two from the State at large, and five homœopathic physicians from the State at large (Code 1887, s. 1,744).
The board is composed of men learned in medicine and surgery appointed by the governor from a list of names recommended by the Medical Society of Virginia, together with five homœopathic physicians nominated to him by the Hahnemann Medical Society of the Old Dominion. The recommendations are required to be by votes of a majority present at some meeting of such society; but if the governor considers any person so recommended unsuitable he may decline to appoint him, in which case such society shall within ninety days after notification make another recommendation, and if the society fail to make a recommendation the governor is required to appoint such board in whole or in part without regard to such recommendation. If any examiner cease to reside in the district for which he was appointed his office is deemed vacant (ib., s. 1,745).
The regular meetings of the board are required to be held at least once a year, and at such times and places as the board may prescribe, and special meetings may be held on the call of the president and any five members (ib., s. 1,746).
Qualification.—The board at any of its meetings must examine all persons making application to them who desire to practise medicine or surgery; when an applicant shall have passed an examination satisfactory as to proficiency before the board in session the president must grant a certificate to that effect. If any applicant fail to pass a satisfactory examination before the board he shall not be permitted to stand a further examination within the next three months, nor shall he be required again to pay the fees prescribed, but no applicant shall be rejected on his examination on account of his adherence to any particular school of medicine or system of practice, nor on account of his views as to the method of treatment and the cure of disease.
When, in the opinion of the president of the board, the applicant has been prevented by good cause from appearing before the board, he shall appoint a committee of three members who shall examine the applicant and may grant a certificate having the same effect as though granted by a full board, until the applicant have an opportunity to appear before the board, when, if he fail to appear for examination, the president shall have the authority to revoke said certificate; or in any case the president shall have authority, at his discretion, to grant a special permit to any applicant to practise medicine until he shall have an opportunity to appear before the board in session for examination, revokable at the discretion of the president. The board has in its discretion authority to accept in lieu of examination a certificate from a medical board of any other State, showing that the applicant has passed a satisfactory examination as to his proficiency, and obtained a license from said board to practise medicine and surgery in said State (ib., s. 1,747, as amended Act 1892, c. 70).
A person obtaining a certificate from the president of the board must cause it to be recorded in the clerk’s office of the county or the corporation court, of the county or corporation in which he resides, or, if he resides in the city of Richmond, in the clerk’s office of the chancery court of the said city (ib., s. 1,749).
No person who shall have commenced the practice of medicine or surgery since January 1st, 1885, or who shall hereafter commence the practice of the same, shall practise as a physician or surgeon for compensation without having obtained a certificate and caused it to be recorded.
Penalty.—The violation of this act is punishable with a fine of from $50 to $500 for each offence, and the violator is debarred from receiving compensation for services rendered as a physician or surgeon; a person assessed with a license tax as a physician or surgeon by any commissioner of revenue prior to July 1st, 1892, shall be taken as having commenced the practice of medicine or surgery prior to that date; but any person who shall not have been so assessed shall be taken as not having commenced such practice prior to that date (ib., s. 1,750, as amended Act 1892, c. 70).
Non-Residents.—A physician or surgeon residing in an adjoining State within ten miles of the boundary line of this State, is entitled to stand the examination and receive a certificate, and the certificate must be recorded in that county in the State nearest to his place of residence, and such certificate and recordation shall make it lawful for him to practise medicine and surgery in this State (ib., s. 1,751).