Papers in connexion with the letter of Professor Syme, regarding the present state and future prospects of the Medical School. Printed by order of the College Committee, 10th September 1840.

Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Papers in connexion with the letter of Professor Syme, regarding the present state and future prospects of the Medical School. Printed by order of the College Committee, 10th September 1840. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    verslty privileges; and it is distinctly avowed, that the modi- fication of that system now proposed is not the result of any change of opinion as to the truth or public usefulness of the principle on which it was founded. The members of the Medical Faculty are not ashamed to justify the privileges they have hitherto possessed, nor are they intimidated by the impu- tation of selfish and interested motives, which they think the successive extensions of the Course of Study introduced by them within these few years, and not yet imitated in any other University, have been more than sufficient to repel. They have seen nothing to alter their opinion, that, in the qualifica- tion for the Medical Degree, a decided preference ought to be given to the instructions of authorized teachers in Universities, on all the required subjects of study,—an opinion which is founded on two simple, and, as the Faculty think, decisive reasons: First, that in the careful scrutiny and selection which those who are appointed to these situations may always be ex- pected to have undergone, there is a better security to the pub- lic than in the case of others (probably as good a security as the nature of human affairs will permit), for the fitness of the teachers in each department; and, secondly, that in a country where endowments to medical teachers are not granted by the State, there is no other mode by which the public can have a sufficient security for highly educated and able men perma- nently devoting themselves to the business of teaching (parti- cularly in the more strictly scientific and less practical depart- ments), than by securing to them in some measure the profits of teaching. The truth of these principles, as the Professors think, does not rest on theory, but on the sure basis of experience, both in this and other countries. It has been said, indeed, that students may be safely left to judge for themselves of the merits of teachers, and that the same objects will be secured by open unfettered competition among teachers, as in ordinary trade and commerce: but the Professors are confident that these opinions are contradicted by facts; that the theory of free trade is wholly inapplicable to the subject of medical tuition, where the demand is neces- sarily limited and incapable of increase, and where the pur- chaser is often a very Imperfect judge of the value of the com-