While it is quite competent for a physician and his patient to make any agreement they think fit, limiting the attendance to a longer or shorter period, or to a single visit; and while, if there is no such limitation, the physician can discontinue his attendance at his own pleasure, after giving reasonable notice of his intention to do so; yet, if he is sent for at the time of an injury by one whose family physician he has been for years, the effect of his responding to the call will be an engagement to attend upon the case so long as it requires attention, unless he gives notice to the contrary, or is discharged by the patient; and he is bound to use ordinary care and skill, not only in his attendance but in determining when it may be safely and properly discontinued [178]. Ordronaux says a physician cannot |74| abandon a case without due notice. To do so would constitute negligence of a grave character, and render him answerable for all injury sustained by the patient in consequence thereof. The contract is for the performance of a service of indefinite duration, and usually without stipulation for its continuance during any particular period. It is plainly a fraud upon the employer to abandon or neglect discharging the trust after having accepted it, for the acceptance constitutes a promise, and a promise is a good foundation upon which to rest a legal obligation. If the physician retires from it, he can only do so by placing the employer in as good circumstances as he found him, and by giving due notice of his intention [179].