Medical reform. An address read to the Harveian Society ... 1847 / [Thomas Hodgkin].

  • Hodgkin, Thomas, 1798-1866
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical reform. An address read to the Harveian Society ... 1847 / [Thomas Hodgkin]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    IS form of a Letter to my friend Sir James Clark, who had already written on the same subject, and who shared in most of the views which I had taken; and I am gratified to find that the scheme has been approved by many whose judgment I esteem. (See Note II.) The most important innovation which I have proposed con¬ sists in the suggestion of a general State, or Government- Examination, the passing of which should confer the sole legal qualification for practice, and empower the individual to act in any or every department of his profession, either singly or in consultation. Such State-Examination should necessarily be preceded by the passing of some academic test; but the aca¬ demic distinctions, which should be conferred in Surgery as well as in Medicine, should not be compulsory, and had better follow than precede the passing of the State-Examination. Under the proposed arrangements, the functions of the Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons would be easily defined, with very little alteration of their present state; and the appointment of suitable persons to conduct the State-Examination would be readily effected. (See Note III.) The great difficulty for which in that scheme I made no pro¬ vision, was the formation of a College to be composed of Gene¬ ral Practitioners. The formation of such a body seems essen¬ tially to imply a defection from the two other bodies, since the scientific attainments required must, in kind, be the same as those required from Physicians and Surgeons ; and formally to recognise inferiority in degree would be fatal to the honour¬ able distinction to which that body justly aspires. Careful reflection on this subject has led me to the persuasion, that the difficulty may be much more easily overcome than I at first imagined. None of the Colleges would be required to institute examinations of their own, seeing that each would have performed its part in the nomination of the Examiners appointed by the State; and the examination by these functionaries, being subse¬ quent to an academic test, would have settled the question of ac¬ quirements, which should then form no subject of jealousy be¬ tween the three Colleges. To the third College, which I will not at present designate by name, might be assigned the nomination of the Examiners in Chemistry, Botany, Pharmacy, and half of those in Materia Medica, and Midwifery. The principal share in