Some observations on medical education : an inaugural address / delivered by W. Mitchell Banks.

  • Banks, W. Mitchell (William Mitchell), 1842-1904.
Date:
[1891]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some observations on medical education : an inaugural address / delivered by W. Mitchell Banks. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    19/22 (page 15)
    Why do we find qualified men setting up sixpenny dispensaries ? Why do we find them offering to take a club at 3s. 4d. a man from their next-door neighbour, who does it at 3s. fid ? First, because they cannot starve, and as they cannot drop upon a legitimate opening in practice, they make an illegitimate one. Secondly, because they never were gentlemen to begin with, and don’t know what gentlemanly conduct and feeling is. You cannot put them out; the only way is to keep them from coming in. And the worst of it is, that the mischief these men do does not come down upon their own heads alone. They lower our whole profession in the estimation of the public, and degrade us in the social scale. I remember the late Dr Fothergill, who was an observing and an independent man, getting furiously assailed because he said that while the youngest curate, the junior of the bar-mess, or the sub- lieutenant of a marching regiment, had the entree into any house and into any society in virtue of his cloth, the doctor had not. I say he was perfectly right. The great men of our profession—the Pagets and Tenners—are on an equality with the greatest in the land. But as regards the rank and file, each man has to make his place in society, not by virtue of his cloth, but by virtue of his own private character, manners, and attainments. I would gladly see all this altered. As a profession, we have risen many degrees in public estimation of late years. We are now exercising a powerful influence in many departments of civic and national life. I would like to see all our members not merely doctors, but men of good education and good breed- ing. I know that with improved social position comes increasing public respect, and with public respect come better emoluments, more leisure, greater honour, and so greater happiness. If I have alluded often—perhaps somewhat severely —to our defects as a profession, I do so in the capacity of the faithful doctor, who will not allow his patient to consider himself a completely sound man while there is some lurking trouble hanging about him. I do so, in short, gentlemen, out of my love for that profession to which I glory in belonging, and which I have all my life done my best to advance.