Applicants examined and licensed by other State examining boards registered by the regents as maintaining standards not lower than those provided by this article, and applicants who matriculated in a New York State medical school before June 5th, 1890, and who shall have received the degree of “M.D.” from a registered medical school before August 1st, 1895, may, without further examination, on the payment of ten dollars to the regents, and on submitting such evidence as they may require, receive from them an indorsement of their license or diploma conferring all the rights and privileges of a regents’ license issued after an examination.
If any person whose registration is not legal because of some error, misunderstanding, or unintentional omission shall submit satisfactory proof that he had all the requirements provided by law at the time of his imperfect registration, and was entitled to be legally registered, he may, on the unanimous recommendation of a State board of medical examiners, receive from the regents under seal a certificate of the facts, which may be registered by any county clerk and shall make valid the previous imperfect registration.
Before any license is issued, it must be numbered and recorded in a book in the regents’ office, and its number noted in the license. This record in all legal proceedings has the same weight as evidence that is given to a record of conveyances of land (ib., s. 148).
Every license to practise medicine is required, before the licensee begins to practise, to be registered in the county clerk’s office, where such practice is to be carried on, with his name, residence, place and date of birth, and the source, number, and date of his license. Before registering, each licensee is required to file an affidavit of the above facts, and that he is the person named in the license, and had, before receiving the same, complied with all the requisites as to attendance, terms, and amount of study and examinations required by law and the rules of the university as preliminary to the conferment thereof; that no money was paid for such license except the regular fees paid by all applicants therefor; that no fraud, misrepresentation, or mistake in any material regard was employed by any one or occurred in order that such license should be conferred.
Every license, or if lost a copy, legally certified so as to be admitted as evidence, or a duly attested transcript of the record of its conferment, shall before registration be exhibited to the county clerk, who, only in case it was issued or indorsed as a license under seal by the regents, shall indorse or stamp on it the date and his name preceded by the words, “Registered as authority to practise medicine in the clerk’s office,—— County.” The clerk is required thereupon to give to every physician so registered a transcript of the entries in the register with a certificate under seal that he has filed the prescribed affidavit (ib., s. 149).
A practising physician having registered a lawful authority to practise medicine in one county and removing such practice, or a part thereof, to another county, or regularly engaged in practice or opening an office in another county, must show or send by registered mail to the clerk of such other county his certificate of registration. If such certificate clearly shows that the original registration was of an authority issued under seal by the regents, or if the certificate itself is indorsed by the regents as entitled to registration, the clerk is required thereupon to register the applicant in the latter county, and to stamp or indorse on such certificate the date, and his name preceded by the words, “Registered also in—— County,” and return the certificate to the applicant (ib., s. 150).
Every unrevoked certificate and indorsement of registration is presumptive evidence that the person named is legally registered. No person can register any authority to practise medicine unless issued or indorsed as a license by the regents. No such registration is valid unless the authority registered constituted at the time of registration a license under the laws of the State then in force. No diploma or license conferred on a person not actually in attendance at the lectures, institution, and examinations of the school conferring the same, or not possessed, at the time of its conferment, of the requirements then demanded of medical students in this State as a condition of their being licensed, and no registration not in accordance with this article, shall be lawful authority to practise, nor shall the degree of doctor of medicine be conferred causa honoris or ad eundum, nor if previously conferred shall it be a qualification for practice (ib., s. 151).
Exceptions.—The law does not affect commissioned medical officers serving in the United States army, navy, or marine hospital service while so commissioned; or any one while actually serving on the resident medical staff of any legally incorporated hospital; or any legally registered dentist exclusively engaged in the practice of dentistry; or any manufacturer of artificial eyes, limbs, or orthopædic instruments or trusses in fitting such instruments on persons in need thereof; or any lawfully qualified physician in other States or countries meeting legally registered physicians in this State in consultation; or any physician residing on a border of a neighboring State and duly authorized under the laws thereof to practise medicine therein whose practice extends into this State, and who does not open an office or appoint a place to meet patients or receive calls within this State; or any physician duly registered in one county called to attend isolated cases in another county, but not residing or habitually practising therein (ib., s. 152).
Penalty.—A person practising without lawful registration or in violation of this article forfeits to the county $50, for each violation and for every day of unlawful practice. To practise under a false or assumed name or falsely personate another practitioner of like or different name is a felony. The violation of the other provisions of the act, or buying, selling, or fraudulently obtaining a medical diploma, license, record, or registration, or aiding or abetting such buying, selling, or fraudulently obtaining, or practising medicine under cover of a diploma or license illegally obtained, or signed and issued unlawfully or under fraudulent representation or misstatement of fact in a material regard, or after conviction of a felony attempting to practise medicine, or appending “M.D.” to the name or assuming to advertise the title of doctor in such manner as to convey the impression that one is a legal practitioner of medicine or any of its branches without having legally received the medical degree, is a misdemeanor punishable with a fine of not less than $250, or imprisonment for six months for the first offence, and for subsequent offences with a fine of not less than $500 or imprisonment for not less than one year, or both fine and imprisonment (ib., s. 159).