An introductory lecture on the rise and progress of midwifery, from the earliest period to the present time : delivered at the Central Infirmary, Greville Street, Hatton Garden, May the 30th, 1828 / by Michael Ryan.

Date:
1828
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An introductory lecture on the rise and progress of midwifery, from the earliest period to the present time : delivered at the Central Infirmary, Greville Street, Hatton Garden, May the 30th, 1828 / by Michael Ryan. 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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    subdivision of the healing art into physic and surgery separation soon confirmed by law in the different nations, and continued in most countries, to the middle, or perhaps towards the close of the last century,—a remnant of which prevails in our own country even to the present time. In the British do- dominions, we have corporations of physicians, surgeons and apothecaries, in each of the countries which are now happily united to the first and most powerful nation in the world. Each of these corporations in England, Scotland and Ireland have peculiar rights and privileges, though a knowledge of each profession is often acquired from a similar source, often from the same teachers and authors, and the practice of each is precisely similar; and yet, a practitioner authorised by any one corporation, cannot practise within the precincts of the ■ Other with impunity. As the principles and practice of the different branches of British medicine arc similar in every part of the empire, should not all duly and legally qualified members ! ©f either corporation have equal rights and privileges, in the same dominions ? This is the case in France, and in all the other enlight- ened European nations, and throughout the vast continent of America. The third article of the French charter declares, that all Frenchmen are equally admissible to all civil and military employments. While some of our medical corpora- tions are endeavouring to prevent members of their rivals and contemporaries from exercising their professions, the whole empire is completely overrun with illiterate and demoralizing empirics, who freely and most extensively practise on the per- sons and purses of his Majesty's subjects at large, with perfect impunity. A most able and veracious physician has truly asserted, that quackery has' destroyed more in this country than the sword, famine, and pestilence, united; and never was there a period in the history of British medicine, at which the force and truth of this opinion was more obvious than at this day. But the laws relating to the practice and protection of the medical profession in the United Kingdoms, are perfectly defective and impotent, while they are no less contradictory than inconsistent, with the wants and wishes of an improved