The Illinois Medical Journal Author:Illinois State Medical Society Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: it is as binding in law as though performed by the chief justice, and only by court action can the marriage be annulled. Ferrymen were formerly often appointed o... more »r elected, and even when the duties were voluntarily assumed they were commonly considered on the same plane with postmasters. The exemption of physicians, therefore, would hardly be excusable in this act unless they were quasi public officers. The statutes fully and properly define who shall be considered practitioners of medicine by the medical practice act, and other statutes mention certain public duties. Chapter 126a makes it a duty of every physician attending a woman in confinement to report the facts of the birth to the county clerk. In assuming the charge of a case, the physician enters into a contract to give the reasonable and ordinary care of the patient; and McNevins vs. Lowe, 40 111., 209, shows that the fact that the service is gratuitous does not lower the standard of the care requisite. The physician present at the birth of a child is the most important witness thereof, and, since his testimony may not be called for until after the time of his probable death, the law very properly demands of him that his testimony be recorded in writing, and immediately. This testimony may be needed by the child, or others, to prove legitimacy, heir- ship, age, citizenship, or title to property. Americans are sometimes greatly inconvenienced because a copy of the birth certificate is required in many foreign countries before a legal marriage can be performed. A physician engaged to attend a case of confinement, therefore, has not completed his care, nor dealt justly with his patron, until he has made this record. Chapter 126a further requires that physicians in attendance upon a person shall make legal report of the ...« less