Note 161 — Chapter II

It has been held that the act of a physician in reporting to a health-board in good faith that his patient is suffering from small-pox, is not actionable. Brown v. Purdy, 8 N. Y. St. Rep., 143. The Court said (per Sedgwick, J.): “In order to give the public the protection due to it, according to the intention of the statute, any physician that possesses in fact an opinion that a patient has a contagious disease, is bound to report the case, whether he has or has not used ordinary professional skill and knowledge. A physician of skill in everything but cases of small-pox, which happily are not numerous, may, unexpectedly to himself, be called to a case which presents to him the appearance of small-pox. It may be said that he may call in counsel. It cannot, however, be said that private counsel should be called in rather than such as the law has appointed. Certainly, if he really thinks the case to be one of small-pox, it is his duty to communicate his opinion to the public authorities, who furnish skilled physicians peculiarly competent to pass upon the case. They are the experts the law points out for the physician. The attendance of these experts upon a patient can cause no injury, and thereafter the responsibility rests solely upon the public officer.”