A letter to Sir William Garrow, His Majesty's attorney-general, on his proposed Bill for regulating the practice of surgery throughout the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland / By James Hamilton.

  • Hamilton, James, 1767-1839.
Date:
April 11 1817
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to Sir William Garrow, His Majesty's attorney-general, on his proposed Bill for regulating the practice of surgery throughout the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland / By James Hamilton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    given to the Profession of Midwifery, in the extended sense of the word, that the mechanical duty* notwithstanding its importance, and its diffi¬ culty on some occasions, forms only a part, and a small part too, of the' occupation of Practitioners of Midwifery in large cities. i It is a curious, and an instructive fact, that in proportion as Physi¬ cians practising Midwifery in London have acquired the confidence of the public, they seem to have become the objects of distrust to the Fel¬ lows of the Royal College of that Metropolis ; so that, as their public use¬ fulness has increased, their exertions have been fettered by the Royal College, till at last an attempt is made to stop them altogether. At first the Licentiates of the College were allowed to practise Midwifery. After¬ wards, in the year 1783, a particular rank was assigned to such Physi¬ cians, under the title of Licentiates in Midwifery. Within these few years, this rank has been abolished ; and, by their acquiescence in the Bill now under consideration, the College have finally consented to transfer the Practice of Midwifery to Surgeons. Placed as I am, at a distance from the Metropolis, and unacquainted with the characters of those leading Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians who regulate the public acts of that Learned Body, it might not be proper for me to hazard any conjecture on the reasons for this con¬ duct ; but it may be very truly said, that they cannot proceed from an anxious desire to fulfil the condition on which their charter was granted, viz. to improve the Science of Medicine. * If the duties of Medical Practitioners could be so much subdivided, that some Physicians could confine themselves exclusively to a parti¬ cular line of Practice, as to the treatment of fevers, or of affections of the liver, or of inflammatory diseases, &c. as some Surgeons restrict their duties to disorders of the Eyes or Teeth, it would be as preposterous to doubt the improvement which must gradually take place in the know¬ ledge of such Diseases, as it would be to question the superiority of Sir William Adam to country Surgeons, in operations on the Eye. —But