The failure to use skill, if the surgeon has it, may be negligence; but when the treatment adopted is not in accordance with the established practice, but is positively injurious, the case is not one of negligence, but of want of skill. If the case is a new one, the patient must trust to the skill and experience of the surgeon he calls. So must he if the injury or disease is attended with injury to other parts, or other diseases have developed themselves, for which there is no established mode of treatment. But when the case is one as to which a system of treatment has been followed for a long time, there should be no departure from it, unless the surgeon who does it is prepared to take the risk of establishing by his success the propriety and safety of his experiment. This rule protects the community against reckless experiments, while it admits the adoption of new remedies and modes of treatment only when their benefits have been demonstrated, or where, from the necessity of the case, the surgeon or physician must be left to the exercise of his own skill and experience [175]. Physicians are not bound to comply with the demands of the public; they may accept or refuse a call: but having accepted, one must continue in attendance upon the case until recovery, unless dismissed, or unless he has withdrawn in a proper way. Even if his services are gratuitous, he must continue them until reasonable time has been given to procure other attendance. A husband sued a medical man for neglecting to attend |73| his wife, according to agreement, during childbirth, and the jury gave him a verdict of $500; the court considered that the physician had broken his contract and was liable therefor, but reduced the damages to a nominal sum, as, in an action on contract, the husband could not recover for the personal injury and sufferings of the wife [176]. If a physician at any time desires to withdraw from a case, he must give such reasonable notice as will enable the patient to obtain assistance elsewhere. He has a right to withdraw at any time, especially with his patient’s consent, but if he insists upon that assent as a shield from liability for any negligence of which he may have been guilty, or for any malpractice committed, the patient may show, if he can, that the consent was obtained by representations that were false; and then the consent will be no protection against liability for damage that had occurred before the consent was given [177].