Medicine and the public / by S. Squire Sprigge.

  • Squire Sprigge
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medicine and the public / by S. Squire Sprigge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    very mortifying to the medical reformers, and ten }Tears elapsed before another serious attempt was made to pass a measure which all now admitted was wanted in the public behalf. In 1856, however, the Royal Colleges of England, Ireland, and Scotland, and the Medical Faculty of Glasgow had a conference of representatives, with the result that these import¬ ant corporations came to an agreement as to their lequirements. This appearance of unanimity led to early results, for in 1858 Mr. William Cowper introduced and secured the passage of the first Medical Act, the Act which, with its various amend¬ ing measures, controls the medical profession at this day. The Act, which is entitled “ An Act to Regulate the Qualifications of Practitioners in Medicine and Surgery, states in the first clause, as the reason for its existence, that it is expedient that persons lequiring medical aid should be enabled to distinguish qualified from unqualified practitioners/’ The measure was clearly designed to protect the public, any benefit that might accrue from it to the medical profession being of secondary importance. The General Medical Council was called into being by the Act, which settled that certain universities and bodies should be entitled to grant medical qualifica¬ tions, and that representatives of those bodies, together with six nominees of the Crown, should foim a central authority for the education of the medical student and for maintaining the official roll of the profession. The constitution of the Council has since been altered in two respects, notably by an amending Act in 1886. Additions have been
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