Report of the Council of the National Institute of General Practioners in Medicine, Surgery and Midwifery, on the present state of the medical reform question ... August 9th, 1848.

  • National Institute of General Practitioners in Medicine, Surgery and Midwifery.
Date:
1848
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Council of the National Institute of General Practioners in Medicine, Surgery and Midwifery, on the present state of the medical reform question ... August 9th, 1848. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ment and the Legislature, that the medical question is quite as important to the community as it is to the medical profession itself. That in the opinion of your memorialists, the only way to arrive at a satisfactory settlement of the affairs of the medical profession, will be in the first instance to incorporate by Royal charter the general practitioners in a college of medicine, surgery, and midwifery, That your memorialists respectfully beg it to be borne in mind, that the general practitioners constitute at least nine-tenths of the medical profession ; that the duties which devolve on them are of vital im¬ portance to the public; and that no act of the Legislature or of the corporations can prevent by far the largest portion of the public from being entrusted to their exclusive professional care. That the attain¬ ments of the present race of general practitioners are of the highest order, and are highly honourable to the profession • but that their position is most grievous and anomalous, from being excluded from the benefits and respectability of a legal incorporation. That your memorialists entertain a confident hope that they have succeeded in convincing the Right Honourable the Secretary of State of the just claims of the highly meritorious body they represent, to a legally recognized position; and your memorialists fully trust that those arguments which were found successful with a former Govern¬ ment, and which were so far acted upon as to have induced a former Secretary of State to state, in his place in Parliament, his intention to incorporate by Royal charter the general practitioners, may have lost none of their force, or be less conclusive than formerly of the justice of their claims, and of the paramount necessity of this prelimi¬ nary measure being forthwith adopted. That, in conclusion, your memorialists beg respectfully to reiterate their grave and deliberate opinion, that it would tend materially to the advancement of science, to the welfare of the community, and to the best interests of the medical profession, if the prayer of this me¬ morial were graciously acceded to, by which the general practitioners would be duly recognized, and, by a properly defined title, be placed among the medical institutions of this enlightened country. (Signed) R. R. PENNINGTON, 8 December, 1847. President. The receipt of this document was acknowledged as follows:— Whitehall, Dec. 14th. 1847. Sir, I am directed by Secretary Sir George Grey to acknowledge the receipt of the Memorial, dated the 8th inst., of the President, Vice