Authority to practise shall be a certificate from the State board of health issued to any reputable physician who is practising, or who desires to begin to practise, who possesses a diploma from a reputable medical college legally chartered under the laws of this State, or a diploma from a reputable and legally chartered medical college of some other State or country, indorsed as such by said board, or satisfactory evidence from the applicant that he was reputably and honorably engaged in the practice of medicine in the State prior to February 23d, 1864. Applicants may present their credentials by mail or proxy (ib., s. 3).
Nothing in the law authorizes any itinerant doctor to register or practise medicine (ib., s. 4).
The board may refuse a certificate to any individual guilty of grossly unprofessional conduct of a character likely to deceive or defraud the public, and may, after due notice and hearing, revoke such certificates for like cause. In cases of refusal or revocation the applicant may appeal to the governor, whose decision affirming or overruling the decision of the board shall be final (ib., s. 5).
Systems, Exceptions.—The law does not discriminate against any peculiar school or system of medicine, nor prohibit women from practising midwifery, nor prohibit gratuitous services in case of emergency, nor apply to commissioned surgeons in the United States army, navy, or marine hospital service, nor to a legally qualified physician of another State called to see a particular case or family, but who does not open an office or appoint a place in the State to meet patients or receive calls (ib., s. 6).
Penalty.—Any person living in this State or coming into this State who shall practise medicine or attempt to practise medicine in any of its branches, or perform or attempt to perform any surgical operation for or upon any person for reward or compensation in violation of this law, shall be punished with a fine of $50, and on each subsequent conviction by a fine of $100 and imprisonment for thirty days, or either, or both; and in no case where any provision of this law has been violated shall the violator be entitled to receive compensation for services rendered. To open an office for such purpose or to announce to the public in any other way a readiness to practise medicine in any county shall be to engage in the practice of medicine (ib., s. 8).
Fees.—To the county clerk, for all services required, 50 cents (ib., s. 1).
Louisiana.
Constitutional Provision.—The general assembly must provide for the interest of State medicine in all its departments, and for the protection of the people from unqualified practitioners of medicine (Const. 1879, Art. 178).
Qualification.—No person is allowed to practise medicine or surgery as a means of livelihood in any of its departments without first making affidavit before a judge, justice of the peace, clerk of district court, or notary public in the parish wherein he resides, of his having received the degree of doctor of medicine from a regularly incorporated medical institution of respectable standing, in America or in Europe, and designating its name and locality, and the date of his diploma; the degree is manifested by the diploma, and the respectable standing of the institution is evidenced by the indorsement or certificate of the State board of health, written on the face of the diploma, and signed by its secretary; the affidavit must contain the full name of the person making the same, the date and place of his birth, and the names of the places where he may have previously practised medicine or surgery; a record of the diplomas certified must be presented by the State board of health, and copies thereof, certified by the secretary, are received in evidence. The State board of health is required to certify the diploma of any medical institution of credit and respectability without regard to its system of therapeutics and whether the same be regular, homœopathic, or eclectic (Act 1882, No. 31, s. 1).