The member, the fellow and the franchise / by John Eric Erichsen.

  • Erichsen, John Eric, 1818-1896.
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The member, the fellow and the franchise / by John Eric Erichsen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    11/18 (page 9)
    Museum and Library, amounting- to £2,954 Ss. gd., and at least two-tliirds of the working- expenses of the College, the great cost of which is mainly due to the requirements of the examina- tions, and which amount to no less a sum than £3,524 2s. id. If we deduct then the Museum and Library expenses and two-thirds of the working- expenses, we shall have a nett balance of about £6,000, out of which pensions and various other collegiate ex- penses have to be paid. The largest item in the expenditure of the College is the sum that is consumed in the direct payment of the nineteen members who constitute the Board and Court of Examiners. This sum so expended appears large, and one charge frequently brought against the Council is that the Examiners, many of whom are elected from the Councillors, are overpaid. But it is only those acquainted with the onerous and exacting duties im- posed upon the Examiners, who can be aware that the payment of the Examiners as contrasted with professional remuneration for other services given by men in their position is barely ade- quate to the work done. So much so is this the case that many of the leading surgeons in London decline to become members of the Court of Examiners on account of the serious inconveni- ence and loss that would thereby be entailed in respect to their private and other public engagements. But the payment of the Examiners does not constitute by any means the whole expense of the examinations. The business of the Office of the College is almost entirely connected with the conduct of the examina- tions, and were the College to cease to be an examining body, a single clerk would be able to do the work of an Institution which now demands the continued attention of a highly trained and necessarily well paid staff of officials. Out of each diploma fee then of twenty guineas, not more than six or seven guineas goes to the coffers of the College, and what does the member receive in return for that ? Why it is in reality a life-com- position on the lowest scale for admission to the Museum, the Library, the Lectures, and all public meetings held within the walls of the College; and in addition, under Section 15 of the Bye-laws, the College engages to protect and to defend a Mem- ber if he is disturbed in the exercise and enjoyment of the Rights, Privileges, Exemptions, and Immunities acquired by him as a Member thereof. On that eventful night when a candidate, having successfully