A speech on medical reform, delivered by Lord Elcho, M.P. in the House of Commons, July 1, 1857, on the second reading of the Medical Profession Bill (No.1) : with appendix.

  • Wemyss, Francis Richard Wemyss-Charteris Douglas, 10th Earl of, 1818-1914.
Date:
1857
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A speech on medical reform, delivered by Lord Elcho, M.P. in the House of Commons, July 1, 1857, on the second reading of the Medical Profession Bill (No.1) : with appendix. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    Dr. Thomson, in his Life of Dr. Cullen, thus expresses his opinion :— If it be desirable for the interests of society that there should exist a separate class of Medical Practitioners under the title of Physicians, the Legislature would surely confer a greater benefit on the public by tixiiig a course of preliminary and professional educa- tion, and providing for the strict examination of those who desire to be licensed to practise in this capacity, and then leaving them at liberty to practise their profession where they please, than by in- dulging Corporations in the exercise of a narrow and exclusive system of monopoly, the only conceivable operation of which is to engender arrogance and presumption, and, consequently, ignorance and rashness, in the minds of those who are admitted within its pale, and jealousy and rancour in those who are kept without it. Similar views were maintained and expressed by Dr. Carpenter, the well-known writer on Physiology, some twenty years ago, in the British and Foreign Medical Review, but which it is unnecessary that I should read to the House. I now come to the charge that I am endeavouring to carry out what is called a Scotch job. There appears this year an unhappy peculiarity about me, for everything I do is denounced as a job. I was charged with jobbery because I advocated the 25-inch scale for the Scotch survey ; and now, because I am, for the sake of the public, endeavouring to oppose a monopoly, I am accused of being engaged in a Scotch job. I deny the charge ! The Bill of the Committee will confer no pecu- liar benefits upon Scotland; all that it does is to protect equally the Scotch, the Irish, and the English Universities. The best proof I can give of its not being a Scotch job is, that at the very time when I was bringing in the Bill a meeting was being held in Edinburgh on the part of Delegates from the Scotch Corporations and Universities, with a view to effecting a compromise on this question. It has been further said that the greatest unanimity prevails among the Medical I'rofession on this subject, and that I am merely throwing down an apple of discord: but I think it will not be difficult to show that this so-called unanimity has no real existence; indeed, the hostility of the Universities would alone be a sufficient proof of this. It is true, that by means of some hocus- pocus the names of two honourable gentlemen opposite, the honour- able Member for the University of Oxford (Sir W. Heathcote), and the right honourable Member for the Dublin University (Mr.
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