A plain statement with reference to medical reform : presented to the Honourable Members constituting the Select Parliamentary Committee on Medical Registration / by Edwin Lee.

Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A plain statement with reference to medical reform : presented to the Honourable Members constituting the Select Parliamentary Committee on Medical Registration / by Edwin Lee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    judgment to such dictation, and to incur the odium which was sure to ensue upon carrying these views into effect, the more espe- cially as the conduct of their colleague, who, as was pretty generally known, was the minister’s principal adviser upon the matter, has been repeatedly and strongly animadverted upon both by the po- litical and medical press; and I must add, that from corroborative circumstances which have come to my knowledge, I consider the member of the profession alluded to, not to be a very fit person to take a prominent part in the regulation of high and im- portant interests affecting the public welfare. I make this state- ment, not in the spirit of animosity, but because, as a witness nominated by the committee, acting on behalf of the associated surgeons of England, I think it right that the true state of matters should be made known to those honourable members who have been commissioned by parliament to investigate the sub- ject of medical reform, and from whom the profession may, it is to be hoped, expect some redress of their grievances, which will not be effected by the measures proposed to be submitted to the legislature, as those agreed upon conjointly by the colleges of physicians and surgeons, and the national association of general practitioners ; these propositions being framed in the same spirit as others, which on former occasions have emanated from the corporate bodies ;—viz., for their own advantage, and not tending to benefit or elevate the condition of the profession. This also applies to the charter required by the College of Physicians, which would not by its being granted be rendered more efficient for the promotion of medical science, or its members thereby raised in public estimation; the fellowship has been offered to physicians and declined, the parties not thinking it worth while to pay the fee demanded by the college, which has consequently applied elsewhere, and seeks to render admission within its pale compulsory upon all phy- sicians of England and Wales, the paying the fee being indis- pensable, but examinations being dispensed with ; and as Dr. Hodgkin observes in a recent pamphlet, “ it remains to be seen what effect will ultimately be produced upon the body of general practitioners, in consequence of many of their members volun- 7