Special report from the Select Committee on the Medical Act (1858) Amendment (No. 3) Bill [Lords] : together with the proceedings of the Committee, minutes of evidence, and appendix.

  • Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on the Medical Act (1858) Amendment (No. 3) Bill.
Date:
1879
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Special report from the Select Committee on the Medical Act (1858) Amendment (No. 3) Bill [Lords] : together with the proceedings of the Committee, minutes of evidence, and appendix. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    443/456 (page 429)
    Appendix, No. 1 (<f.) Abstract of a Report by the Registrar to the Executive Committee read on 21 December 1877, in regard to corrections of the “ Medical Register,” and subjects connected therewith :— The Report stated that a systematic and thorough collation of the “ Register ’’ had been made; that several thousand letters of inquiry had been sent out, and an almost equal number of corrections of addresses obtained thereby ; that, with a view to eliminate from the “ Register” the names of deceased medical practitioners, such letters as, failing alto- gether to find their owners, had been returned bv the Dead Letter Office, would, after- further inquiry, be dealt with according to the provisions of Section XIV. of the Medical Act, although, owing to the six months’ interval prescribed by the said seciion, the names of most of these practitioners whose registered places of address know them no more, must, of necessity, appear in the next edition of the “ Register” ; that such letters as had been returned with the superscription “ dead,” written thereon by local postmasters, had been submitted for verification to the Registrar General for England, in consequence of the promise to deal therewith contained in his letter of 21st November (printed as the second letter of Part (c.) of this Paper); and that the searches hitherto made by the Registrar General’s order, extending over the first list of names sent to him, had led to results set forth in the following letter:— “ General Register Office, Somerset House, “Sir, 14 December 1877. “ I am directed by the Registrar General to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 5th instant, and to return the list therein enclosed of medical practitioners who are sup- posed to be dead. A careful search, extending over the years 1858-1877, has been made in the certified copies of the registers for the localities in which their last places of address are respectively situated, but in only 11 out of the 28 cases has any record of the death been found, in these 11 cases the date and place of death have been entered in the list opposite the name. In order to ascertain satisfactorily whether the deaths of the remaining 17 have been registered, some clue as to the year or place of death is required. For example, the entries of the deaths of 43 persons named Thomas Evans in the district of Neath have been examined, none of which related to the Thomas Evans referred to in the list. “ The packets of envelopes returned from places in Scotland and Ireland are herewith returned to you, as the registers of deaths occurring in Scotland and Ireland are under the control of the respective Registrars General of ihose countries. “With respect to some of the more recent cases, the Registrars will be called upon to furnish an explanation as to their apparent neglect to transmit the Certificates. (signed) “ J. T. Hammick, “W. J. C. Miller, Esq.” “Secretary. It was further stated in the Report that the Board of Trade had, at the request of the Medical Council’s Registrar, promised to send him periodical returns of such deaths of registered practitioners as come under the cognisance of the Registrar of Shipping and Seamen. (<?.) Abstract of a Report by the Registrar to the Executive Committee, read on 18th January 1878, in regard to certain further corrections and improvements of the “ Medical Register.” (l.) The Report stated that the processes of correction set forth in former Reports had been incessantly carried on by the Registrar, and would be so continuously, till the numerous errors that had been allowed to accumulate in the “Register” had been all removed. Since the last summary of results was made, a very large number of additional corrections had been obtained, whereof some were changes in the addresses, and others the erasure of names of practitioners long since dead. In cases where the necessary evidence of death had been difficult to procure, valuable aid had been rendered by the Registrars General, the Board of Trade’s Registrar of Shipping and Seamen, and the Director General of the Navy Medical Department, as detailed in the following correspondence. (2.) Under date 2nd and 11th January, the Registrar General for England wrote to say that he was glad to have been so successful with the last lists sent to him ; that he had taken a great deal of irouble in the matter, and that, in order to aid the Medical Council’s Registrar to the utmost in his corrections, he had made 487 separate references to the indexes, and 154 separate references to the heavy volumes of his “ Registers of Deaths.”