ART. 43] PRACTITIONERS OF MEDICINE. 1117

petition shall be under oath, and shall state that the petitioner is
informed and believes that the person named therein has been heretofore
improperly and wrongfully registered as physician or surgeon, or both,
upon his own application and affidavit upon the register of physicians
or book kept for such purpose in any court of this State, for the reason
(as said petitioner is empowered) that such person was not lawfully
practising medicine in the State of Maryland as a duly qualified prac-
titioner of medicine in said State entitled to be registered as a physician
or surgeon upon his own application to the clerk of said court; and that
said petitioner prays that the name of such person shall be struck from
the registry of physicians aforesaid. Upon the filing of such petition
the court or one of the judges thereof shall pass an order requiring the
person therein alleged to be wrongfully or improperly registered to
answer the same, under oath, on or before a date to be named within
thirty days from the date of such order, and to show cause, if any there
be, why the prayer of such petition should not be granted, which order
shall be served upon said last named person; and if said petition shall
not be answered within the time named, as aforesaid, or if the answer
thereto shall be adjudged insufficient by the court, then the court shall
pass an order directing that the name of such person alleged to be wrong-
fully or improperly registered shall be stricken from the registry of
physicians or surgeons where the same shall have been registered; but if
said petition shall be answered by the defendant, being the person against
whom it is exhibited by an answer under oath, fairly and fully denying
the allegations of said petition, the issues thus raised shall be heard
and determined by the court, and either party may be entitled to a jury
trial before a jury of the regular panel empanneled to try common law
cases in said court; and the defendant shall be competent and compell-
able to testify at such hearing, and upon such hearing the court shall
render judgment with costs against the unsuccessful party. And if it
shall determine that said defendant was not practising medicine in the
State of Maryland on or before the date of June 1, 1892, not being a
lawful practitioner of medicine in said State, on or before said date,
it shall pass an order directing the name of said defendant to be stricken
from the registry of physicians or surgeons, or both, which order shall
be certified by the clerk of the court wherein said defendant was regis-
tered, and he shall thereupon strike his name from said registry. But
the decision upon such petition shall have no force and effect in any
criminal prosecution under this sub-title.

1904, art. 43, sec. 101. 1902, ch. 612, sec. 61. 1908, ch. 120.
130. Any person shall be regarded 'as practicing medicine within
the meaning of this sub-title who shall append to his or her name the
words or letters "Dr.," "Doctor," "M. D.," or any other title in connec-
tion with his name, with the intent thereby to imply that he or she
is engaged in the art or science of healing, or in the practice of medicine
in any of its branches, or who shall operate on, profess to heal, prescribe