Observations in reference to the licence of the Royal College of Physicians of London as a complete qualification to practise medicine, surgery, and midwifery : addressed to the Fellows of the College / by Richard Quain.

  • Quain, Richard, 1816-1898.
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations in reference to the licence of the Royal College of Physicians of London as a complete qualification to practise medicine, surgery, and midwifery : addressed to the Fellows of the College / by Richard Quain. 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.

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    for the Licence. He will be told that he is required to pass, in surgery, an examination conducted by the College o urgeons, „r by some other surgical authority. To tins of course l e i cannot object, for the College of Physicians can frame the regu- lations under which it will give its Licence, and to pass a examination conducted by a College of Surgeons may be one of them. But the candidate may reply, ‘If you decline to examine me in surgery, which you are required to do by the Act of Parliament under which this Licence is granted by youi own Board, you surely do not require me to pay twenty guineas for passing the surgical examination of another Board, wine i the College of Physicians is itself capable of conducting. I protest against being compelled to become a member of a Colleo-e of Surgeons, a title which I do not desire noi wan, and f object to being compelled to pay thirty-six guineas in place of fifteen.’ The candidate would be perfectly light, the College having undertaken to perform by law a certain duty, and enjoying by the same law a number of great privileges, can by law be required to fulfil its duty, if it fail to do so There can be no doubt that a mandamus could be obtained by sue 1 a candidate, requiring the College to examine him for its Licence, and if he were found competent, to give him its com- plete Licence as at-present. The words ‘as far as allowed by law,’ in the clause which I have quoted from the scheme of le two Colleges, afford evidence that the framers of the scheme were conscious of the existence of this difficulty. I have heard it said that the College might proceed with the scheme, an wait until legal proceedings have been commenced agams it. For my part, I have too high an opinion of the honour, the integrity, and the dignity of the College of Physicians to believe that it will knowingly adopt and pursue an lllega course, waiting until the action of the law is called upon to check it. _ . Lastly, I desire to express my conviction that the interests neither of the profession, nor of the public, nor of the College will be advanced by our College altering the system which it established of granting an all-sufficient diploma by a single Examining Board. The close association of the whole profes- sion with our College should be encouraged, inasmuch as the control which the College exercises over its Fellows, Members,