CHAP. 237.—An ACT to regulate the practice of medicine and surgery in
the State of Virginia, and to repeal all acts or parts of acts of the
general assembly of Virginia, and any section or sections of the Code
of Virginia in conflict with the provisions thereof, especially an act
entitled an act to regulate the practice of medicine and surgery in
the State of Virginia, approved February 22d, 1894, and sections 1744,
1745, 1746, 1747, 1748, 1749, 1750, 1751 and 1752 of the Code of
Virginia of 1887, and all amendments thereto.

Approved March 18, 1912.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia as fol-
lows:

Board of medical examiners.—A board, to be known as the
board of medical examiners for the State of Virginia, is hereby
established, which shall consist of one member from each con-
gressional district in this State, and in addition five from the
State at large, two of whom shall be homeopathic physicians;
provided, however, that on April first, nineteen hundred and four-
teen, the board shall consist of one regular physician from each
congressional district, and one homeopath and one osteopath from
the State at large. The term of office of the members of said
board shall be four years, or until their successors are ap-
pointed and qualify, and they shall be men learned in medicine
and legal and active practitioners in the State of Virginia.

2. How appointed.—The members of the board shall be ap-
pointed by the governor on or before the first day of April, nine-
teen hundred and fourteen, and every fourth year thereafter,
from a list of names to be recommended by the Medical Society
of Virginia, except the homeopath and the osteopath, who shall
be nominated to him by their respective State medical society.
Vacancies occurring on said board for unexpired terms shall be
filled in the same manner, and shall be to fill the unexpired term
only. Such recommendation shall be by the votes of a majority
present at a meeting of the said societies, and the same shall be
certified to the governor by the president and secretary of such
society: provided, however, in case the governor shall consider
any of the persons so recommended unsuitable, he may decline
to appoint such person or persons, and communicate the facts to
the president of the society presenting the nomination, and such
society shall, within ninety days thereafter, make other recom-
mendations in the same manner as hereinbefore provided, which
shall stand on the same footing in all respects as those first made:
provided, further, if such society shall fail to make such recom-
mendations prior to the time of appointment, or within the
ninety days, the governor shall appoint such board, either in
whole or in part, without regard to such recommendations. If
any member of the board shall cease to reside in the district from
which he was appointed his office shall be deemed vacant. The
governor may summarily remove any member of the board for
misconduct, incapacity, or neglect of duty, and he shall be the
sole judge of the sufficiency of the cause for removal. The mem-
bers of the present board shall continue in office until the expira-
tion of their respective terms, April first, nineteen hundred and
fourteen.

3. Oath; powers; meetings.—The members of said board
shall qualify by taking the usual oath of office before the circuit
or corporation court of the county or corporation in which they,
respectively, reside, or before the judge thereof in vacation. The
officers of said board shall be a president, vice-president and a
secretary (who shall also act as treasurer), said officers to be
members of and selected by the said board. Regular meetings
of the board shall be held at such times and places as the board
may prescribe, and special meetings may be held upon the call
of the president and any five members, but there shall not be
less than one regular meeting each year. Five members of the
board shall constitute a quorum. The board may prescribe rules,
regulations and by-laws for its own proceedings and government
and for the examination by its members of candidates for the
practice of medicine, including the scope of the said examina-
tion. Due notice of such meetings shall be given by publication
in such papers as may be selected by the board. The board, or
any committee thereof, may employ counsel, shall have the power
to compel the attendance of witnesses and to administer oaths,
and may take testimony and proofs concerning all matters within
its jurisdiction. No by-law or rule by which the vote of a ma-
jority of the board is required for any specified action shall be
suspended or repealed by a smaller vote than that required for
action thereunder.

4, Preservation of records.—The board shall preserve a rec-
ord of its proceedings in a book kept for that purpose, which shall
show the name, age, place and duration of residence therein of
each applicant for a license, the time spent in medical study in
respective medical schools, and the year and school from which
degrees were granted; said record shall also show whether appli-
cants were granted a certificate or rejected, and shall be prima
facie evidence of all matters contained therein. The secretary
of the board shall, on the first day of March of each year, trans-
mit a copy of said record, together with a photograph of each
license to the superintendent of the board of education of the
State of Virginia for permanent record, and certified copies of
the said record, under the hand and seal of the secretary of the
board or of said superintendent, shall be admissible as evidence
in all courts of this State.

5. Registration of certificates; duties of clerks.—Every cer-
tificate to practice medicine granted under the provisions of this
act shall, before the licensee begins practice, thereunder, be pre-
sented by him to the clerk of the circuit court of the county, or
the clerk of the corporation court of the city wherein such prac-
tice is to be carried on. The clerk of each of said courts shall
keep a book for the purpose, entitled the ‘‘medical register,” and
set apart one full page therein for the registration of each
licensee, and he shall record therein the name, residence, place
and date of birth, and source, number and date of the license to
practice, and the school of practice to which each licensee pro-
fesses to belong, and each licensee shall subscribe and verify
under oath the matters above mentioned when the same have
been so recorded, which if wilfully false shall subject the person
so making oath to conviction and punishment for false swear-
ing as provided by law. The fact of such oath and record shall
be endorsed by the said clerk upon each certificate presented,
and the clerk shall receive the sum of one dollar from each
licensee so registered, which shall be his full compensation tor
all duties required under this act. The holder of a certificate
to practice medicine must have the same recorded upon each
change of residence to another county or corporation, and the
absence of such record shall be prima facie evidence of the want
of possession of such certificate. When any licensee shall die
or remove from the county or corporation, or have his certificate
revoked, it shall be the duty of said clerk to make a note of the
facts at the bottom of the page of the said licensee as closing
his record. On the first day of January in each year said clerk
shall, on the request of the board, certify to the president thereof
a correct list of the licensees then registered in the county or
corporation, together with such other information as said board
may require. Any clerk, upon conviction of knowingly violating
any provision of this act shall be fined not more than fifty dollars
for each offense. A copy of the ‘medical register’ pertaining
to any person certified to by said clerk under seal of court; also
a certificate issued by said clerk, certifying that any person
named has or has not registered in his office, as required by this
act, shall be admitted as evidence in all courts of this State.

6. Registration of certificates; verification certificates; du-
plicate certificates; reciprocity.—Within one year after the
passage of this act all licensed practitioners of medicine in this
State shall, as above provided, register their certificates to prac-
tice medicine in the office of the clerk of the circuit or corporation
court of the county or corporation in which they reside. Legal
practitioners of medicine practicing under the provisions of
previous laws who have not already received a license from a
State medical examining board of this State, shall present to the
board documents sufficient to establish the existence and validity
of a diploma granted to each by some bona fide college of medi-
cine, or to establish their exemption existing under any law, and
shall receive from said board a verification license, which shall
be recorded in the clerk’s office of the circuit or corporation court
of the county or city in which the licensee resides, as provided
above for original licensees, and duly endorsed by the said clerk
in like manner. Such verification license shall be issued for a
fee of fifty cents to all practitioners so qualifying who have not
already received a license from a board of medical examiners of
this State. It is especially provided that those whose claims to
State license rest upon having practiced in the State previous to
the year eighteen hundred and eighty-five, shall present to the
board satisfactory evidence of having legally practiced medicine
in this State before eighteen hundred and eighty-five, or if an
osteopath, before the year nineteen hundred and three. The
board may, at its discretion, arrange for reciprocity with the
authorities of other states and territories having requirements
equal to those established by this act. Certificates may be
granted applicants to practice under such reciprocity on pay-
ment of a fee of twenty-five dollars to the secretary of the board.
Legal practitioners who have lost their State board certificates
must obtain duplicate certificates by furnishing to the secretary
of the board satisfactory proofs of the issuance to the individual
of the former certificates, and upon the payment cf a fee of one
dollar, and the new certificates when issued must be registered
as hereinbefore provided for original licenses.

7. Violations; trials; powers of board in refusing examina-
tion.—The State board of medical examiners, or any member
thereof, shall have power at any time to inquire into the identity
of any person claiming to be a licensed or registered practitioner,
and after due service upon such person of a notice in writing.
require him to make reasonable proof, satisfactory.to the board
that he is the identical person licensed to practice medicine under
the license by virtue of which he claims the right to practice. lf
after such inquiry it is found that the person is practicing
wrongfully, or if after due investigation by the above named au-
thorities, or any one of them, any person whatsoever is found
to be violating any provision of this act, it shall be the duty of
such investigator to transmit to the commonwealth’s attorney of
the county or corporation wherein such person resides, or is or
has been practicing or attempting to practice, all the evidence
in their possession tending to establish such violation of this
act; and it shall be the duty of the said commonwealth’s attor-
ney to immediately prosecute such person for violation of this
act, if, in his opinion, the evidence so presented is sufficient to
convict, and upon trial the burden of proof shall be upon the
defendant to prove his right to practice. The board may refuse
to admit persons to its examinations, or to issue the certificate
provided for in this act, or may revoke any certificate or verifi-
cation certificate granted by it or by any other medical exam-
ining board of this State, in any of the following cases:

(a) A practitioner of medicine who is guilty of any crime or
misdemeanor, or who is guilty of any fraud or deceit by which
he was admitted to practice; or

(b) Is an habitual drunkard or habitually addicted to the
use of morphine, opium, cocaine or other drugs having a similar
effect; or
(c) Who undertakes or engages in any manner or by any
ways or means whatsoever, to procure or perform a criminal
abortion, as the same is defined by the law of this State:

Provided, that any applicant who may be refused admittance
to examination before said board, or who may be refused a cer
tificate by said board, or who may have his certificate revoked
by said board shall have his right of action to have such issue
tried by the circuit court of the county or the corporation court
of the city within whose jurisdiction he may reside, and the
proceeding to try such issue shall be begun by the filing of a
petition by such person in such court reciting the facts and
making the said board the party defendant; whereupon after
due service of process upon the member of said board residing
in the congressional district in which said county or city is
located, at least ten days before the trial, the court shall pro-
ceed to try the issue, the burden of proof being upon the peti-
tioner to establish his right to be examined, to be granted cer-
tificate, or to practice. It shall be the duty of the common-
wealth’s attorney of the said county or corporation to appear
on behalf of the board and to file any answer that he may deem
expedient on its behalf, and to defend the said action before
the court. The judgment of the court upon the issue tried shall
be final. The board, or any member thereof, may investigate
any person practicing or attempting to practice, or opening an
office for the ostensible purpose of practicing medicine in this
State, and may require such person to produce his certificate
granted by the board, or document sufficient to establish his
right to practice medicine under this act; and, in case such per-
son fails or refuses to so prove his right to practice, the investi-
gator shall report the case to the commonwealth’s attorney of
the county or corporation wherein such person is practicing or
attempting or offering to practice, and it shall be the duty of such
commonwealth’s attorney to immediately prosecute such person
for violating this act, and upon the trial of such person the bur-
den of proof shall be upon him to establish his right to practice.

8. Admission to examination; power of board.—aAll appli-
cants for certificates to practice medicine in this State after the
passage of this act, must successfully pass an examination before
the board of medical examiners established by this act. The
said board shall admit to examination any candidate who pays
a fee of twenty-five dollars, and submits evidence verified hy
affidavit and satisfactory to the board, that he: °

(a) Is twenty-one years of age or more.

(b) Is of good moral character.

(c) Had prior to beginning his first year of medical study
the general education required preliminary to receiving the de-
gree of bachelor or doctor of medicine of this State. This pre-
liminary education shall meet the requirements of the board of
education of the State of Virginia, and a certified statement from
the superintendent of said board shall accompany the candidate’s
application.
(d) Has studied medicine not less than four school years, in-
cluding four satisfactory courses of at least eight months each
in four different calendar years in a medical school registered
as maintaining a standard satisfactory to the State board of edu-
cation. Virginia medical schools and Virginia medical students
shall not be discriminated against by the registration of any
medical school out of the State whose minimum graduation
standard is less than that fixed by statute for Virginia medical
schools. The above clause of subsection (d) shall not apply unt?!
April first, nineteen hundred and fourteen.

The board may in their discretion accept as the equivalent
of the first year of requirement (d) evidence of graduation from
a registered college course, provided that such college course
shall have included not less than the minimum requirements
prescribed by the board and by the State board of education for
such admissions to advanced standing.

The board may also at their discretion admit conditionally
to the examination in anatomy and histology, physiology and em-
bryology and chemistry, applicants nineteen years of age, or
more, certified as having studied medicine at some registered
medical college not less than two years, including two satisfac-
tory courses of at least eight months each, in two different calen-
dar years, and of having passed in all of those medical branches
at the said college, but the said college must be registered as
maintaining at the time a standard satisfactory to the State
board of education: provided, further, that such applicant must
meet requirements b and ec.

The board may also, at their discretion, accept as the equiva-
lent of any part of requirements c and d five or more years of
legal and reputable practice, and such candidate shall be e°x-
empted from taking the examinations in anatomy and histology,
and physiology, embryology and chemistry.

(e) Has either received the degree of bachelor or doctor of
medicine from some registered medical school, or a diploma or
license conferring full right to practice medicine in some foreign
country, unless admitted conditionally to the examinations as
specified above, in which case all qualifications, including the full
period of study, the medical degree and the final examinations
must be met. The degree of bachelor or doctor of medicine shall
not be conferred in this State before the candidate has filed with
the institution conferring it the certificate of the State board of
education that before beginning the first annual medical course
counted toward the degree, he had either graduated from a regis-
tered college or satisfactorily completed a full course in a regis-
tered academy or high school; or had a preliminary education
considered and accepted by the State board of education as fully
equivalent, or held a State board of education medical student
certificate; or passed State board of education examinations se-
curing sufficient academic counts, in accordance with the stand-
ard of the Association of American Medical Colleges, or their
full equivalent, before beginning the first annual medical course
counted toward the degree: provided, however, that when an
applicant has failed to pass a‘satistactory examination, he mav
appear before the board again once within one vear without pav-
ing an additional fee: provided, that any person who shall pro-
duce before the said examining board a certificate from the judge
of the circuit court and the commonwealth’s attorney of the
county in which he resides stating that in their opinion, from
evidence produced before them, he was a practicing physician
prior to the first day of January, eighteen hundred and ninety-
five, then said examining board shall give to said person a certi-
ficate allowing said person to practice medicine in Virginia.

9. Expenditure of funds.—The funds realized from all fees
collected by the board shall be applied first to the payment of
necessary expenses of the board; and remaining funds shall ve
applied by the order of the board for the compensation of tne
members of the board in proportion to their labors.

10. Conduct of examinations.—All examinations shall be con-
ducted in writing, together with practical tests when the ma-
jority of the board may deem necessary, and in such manner as
shall be entirely fair and impartial to all individuals and every
school of medicine, the applicants being known by numbers,
without names or other method of identification on examination
papers by which members of the board may be able to identify
such papers until after the applicants have been granted certi-
cates or rejected. Upon satisfactory examination, under the
rules of board, applicants shall be granted certificates to prac-
tice medicine. All certificates shall be attested by the signature
and seal of the president and secretary of the board, respectively.

11. Exemption from examination; exceptions.—Nothing in
this act shall be construed to affect commissioned or contract
medical officers serving in the United States army, navy, or pub-
lic health and marine hospital service, while so commissioned
and in the performance of their duties, but such shall not engage
in private practice without license from the board of medical
examiners of the State; or to affect any person while actually
serving without salary or professional fees on the resident medi-
eal staff of any legally incorporated hospital; or any legally reg-
istered dentist exclusively engaged in practicing dentistry; or
any non-itinerant person or manufacturer who mechanically fits
or sells lenses, artificial eves, limbs or other apparatus or apnpli-
ances, or is engaged in the mechanical examination of eyes for
the purpose of adjusting spectacles, eve-glasses or lenses; or any
lawfully qualified practitioner from other states, territories or
countries meeting legally registered practitioners in this State
in consultation, but who do not open offices or appoint places in
this State where patients may be met or called to be seen; or to
limit in any way the manufacture or sale of proprietary medi-
cines by licensed druggists in this State; or to the furnishing of
medical assistance in cases of emergency; or to the domestic
administration of family remedies; or to the practice of the re-
ligious tenets of any church in the ministration to the sick or
suffering by mental or spiritual means without the use of any
drug or material remedy, whether gratuitously or for compen-
sation, provided sanitary laws are complied with; or to affect
or interfere in any way with the operation of any hospital now
established in this State; or to any person while engaged in con-
ducting such hospital now established if there be a licensed prac-
titioner resident and practicing therein; or to any person who
commenced the practice of osteopathy in this State prior to Janu-
ary first, nineteen hundred and three; or to any person who com-
menced the practice of chiropody in this State prior to January
first, nineteen hundred and eleven; or to nurses who practice
nursing only; or to masseurs in their particular sphere of labor
who publicly represent themselves as such. This article shall ke
construed to apply to persons, not pretending to be physicians.
who offer for sale on the streets or other public places or leave
gratuitously at residences, remedies which they recommend
for the healing or curing of disease. This article shall be
construed to repeal all acts or parts of acts authorizing confer-
ment of any degree in medicine causa honoris or ad eundem
gradum or otherwise than on students duly graduated after
satisfactory completion of a preliminary medical course not less
than that required by this article as a condition of license. It 1s
further provided that graduates of any sectarian school of medi-
cine who profess to practice medicine according to the tenets of
said schools shall fulfill all of the conditions of the board and of
the State board of education, save that they may be exempted
from taking the examination of the regulars on practice of medi-
cine, materia medica and therapeutics. <A license to practi-e
such sectarian school of medicine shall not permit the holder
thereof to administer drugs or practice surgery unless he has
qualified himself so to do by examination before the board, nor
shall it permit members of such sectarian schools now practicing
in this State to perform surgery with the use of instruments,
unless they satisfy the board that they have had adequate clini-
cal facilities at their respective colleges of graduation, or by hos-
pital work, to enable them to perform such operations.

It is further provided that chiropodists shall take the special
examination as provided by the act to regulate chiropody and be
limited in his practice according to the provisions of that «ct.

12. Definition of the practice of medicine.—Any person shall
be regarded as practicing medicine within the meaning of this
act (1) who opens an office for such purpose, or announces to the
public in any way a readiness to practice medicine in any county
or city of the State, or prescribes for, or gives surgical assist-
ance, or heals, cures, or relieves those suffering from injury or
deformity, or disease of mind or body, or advertises, or an-
nounces to the public in anv manner a readiness or ability to heal,
cure or relieve those who may be suffering from injury or «e-
formity, or disease of mind or body. (2) Or who shall use in
connection with his name the words or letters “Dr.,” ‘Doc-
tor,” ‘‘Professor,” ‘““M. D.” or “Healer,” or any other title, word,
letter or designation intending to imply or designate him as a
practitioner of medicine in any of its branches, or of being able
to heal, cure or relieve those who may be suffering from injury
or deformity or disease of mind and body.

13. Penalties.—Any person practicing medicine in this State
in violation of the provisions of this act, or otherwise violating
the same, shall, upon conviction thereof, be fined not less than
fifty dollars nor more than five hundred dollars for each offense,
and in addition may be imprisoned in the jail of the county or
corporation in which convicted for a term not exceeding six
months, and each day of such violation shall constitute a separate
offense; and in no case shall the violator be entitled to recover
anything for the services rendered. And it shall be the duty of
the clerk of the circuit court of the county, or the clerk of the
corporation court of the city wherein such conviction is had to
report the fact of the same to the board of medical examiners,
who shall thereupon annul the license of the person convicted,
if said person was a licensed practitioner.

14. All acts or parts of acts of the general assembly of Vir-
ginia, and any section or sections of the Code of Virginia in con-
flict with the provisions hereof, especially an act entitled an act
to regulate the practice of medicine and surgery in the State of
Virginia, approved February twenty-second, eighteen hundred
and ninety-four, and sections seventeen hundred and forty-four,
seventeen hundred and forty-five, seventeen hundred and forty-
six, seventeen hundred and forty-seven, seventeen hundred and
forty-eight, seventeen hundred and forty-nine, seventeen hun-
dred and fifty, seventeen hundred and fifty-one and seventeen
hundred and fifty-two of the Code of Virginia of eighteen hun-
dred and eighty-seven, and all amendments thereto, are hereby
repealed.

15. Owing to the fact that there is an immediate necessity
for the going into effect of this act in order to properly regulate
the practice of medicine in the State of Virginia, an emergency
is declared to exist, and this act shall be in force from its passage.