Memorial addressed by the President and Committee of the Royal College of Physicians, London, to the Select Committee on medical legislation (April 23, 1856).

  • Royal College of Physicians of London.
Date:
[1856]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Memorial addressed by the President and Committee of the Royal College of Physicians, London, to the Select Committee on medical legislation (April 23, 1856). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    To the Right Hon. W. F. COWPER, M.P., and the other Members of the Select Committee to which the Medical Rills have been referred. The President and Committee of the Royal College of Physicians, having been informed that a Bill, entitled “ A Bill for Regulating and Improving the Medical Profession”, and ordered by the House of Commons to he printed, 7th April, 1856, has been referred to a Select Committee, trust that they may be permitted to state respectfully the strong objections entertained by the College of Physicians to this Bill, as being not only exceedingly unjust to the College, but sure to be injurious, in many ways, to the profession and the public. The means by which it is proposed in this Bill to “ regulate” and “improve' the profession are twofold: first, by fixing the amount of medical qualification, without which no person shall be permitted to enter upon medical practice; and secondly, by effecting a general registration of qualified practitioners. But the manner in which it is proposed that these measures shall be carried out, would, in the opinion of the College, introduce worse evils than any which now exist. For the standard of qualification, and of age, to be fixed under Clause viii, being necessarily a minimum standard, not only would no inducement be held out to any one to aim at higher qualifications, but those inducements, which have been in force hitherto, would be, to a considerable extent, destroyed by this Bill; which grants, for the first time, perfect equality to all licenses and diplomas, however different the amount of time, and study, and expense necessary for their acquirement, and consequently represented by them. Thus would the licenses and examinations of Bodies, consisting of members of one branch of the profession only, as, for example, those of the two last bodies in Schedule B.—viz. the Apothecaries’ Society of London, and the Company of Apothecaries of Ireland—be rendered valid for practising, not merely as apothecaries, but as surgeons and as physicians; which would be mani- festly unfair to physicians and surgeons, and inexpedient, if not unsafe, as regards the community. Again, as to the number of Bodies which grant diplomas and licenses, nothing has created greater confusion in the profession, or tended more to deteriorate medical education, than the large number of Bodies possessing or assuming this right;'an evil which, so far from being abated, would be even increased by this Bill; for it extends this right to other Bodies, which have it not, or have not exercised it; and would admit as qualifying for practice, even, as already stated, in every branch of the profession, the licenses of Bodies which, if they have the means of teaching and examining in any branch, certainly have it not in all. The manner in which registration is appointed to be conducted under this Bill is objectionable, because no distinction is made between the different classes in the profession. And with what show of justice can those who are already legal practitioners be called upon, by Clause xx, to pay a considerable sum for registration, which could be to them of little service ? Indeed, to those to whom some superiority of rank