No certificate required from any physician or surgeon or medical practitioner is valid unless the signer is registered (ib., art. 3,995).
Persons Guilty of Felony.—Any registered member of the medical profession convicted of felony forfeits his right to registration, and the medical board causes his name to be erased from the register (ib., art. 3,996).
If a person known to have been convicted of felony presents himself for registration, the registrar is required to refuse him registration (ib., art. 3,997).
Offences and Penalties.—A person not entitled to register convicted of having practised in contravention of this law, for reward or the hope of reward, is liable to a penalty of $50.
A like penalty is incurred by every person assuming the title of doctor, physician, or surgeon, or any other name implying that he is legally authorized to practise, if unable to establish the fact by legal proof, and by every person who in an advertisement in a newspaper or in a written or printed circular, or on business cards or on signs, assumes a designation so as to lead the public to believe that he is duly registered or qualified; and by every person who offers or gives his services as a physician, surgeon, or accoucheur for gain or hope of reward, if he be not duly authorized and registered.
Burden of Proof.—In every prosecution, proof of registration is incumbent on the party prosecuted.
Witnesses.—Members of the college are not incompetent witnesses by reason of their membership.
Costs.—The court imposing a penalty adds costs, and, in default of payment within a delay which it fixes, condemns the defendant to imprisonment in a common jail of the district for sixty days (ib., art. 3,998).
Evidence.—In cases where proof of registration is required, the production of a printed or other copy or extract from the register, certified under the hand of the registrar of the college, is sufficient evidence that all persons named therein are registered practitioners and any certificate upon such proof, or other copy of the register or extract from such register, purporting to be signed by any person in his capacity of registrar of the college, is prima facie evidence that such person is registrar without proof of the signature or of his being in fact such registrar (ib., art. 3,999).
Homœopathists.—The rights of homœopathists are not affected by the foregoing sections (ib., art. 4,002).