Third report from the Select Committee on Medical Registration and Medical Law amendment : together with the minutes of evidence and appendix.
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on Medical Registration and Medical Law Amendment.
- Date:
- 1848
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Third report from the Select Committee on Medical Registration and Medical Law amendment : together with the 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.
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![R. Christison, Esq-, M. D. 9 May, 184.8. London, require a practitioner coming from Scotland, or elsewhere, to have their license to practise within that district ? —I think that such is the case, but with this exception, which I ought to have made in my answer to question 1517, namely, that 1 believe a physician, any one practising purely as a physician, might settle even in Glasgow itself, provided that he had the Glasgow' University degree or the Edinburgh University degree ; and that, by courtesy at all events, I think an English graduate might be entitled to settle in Glasgow as a physician merely. 1524. Chairman.] That is your opinion, but has that been conceded by the body of Glasgow physicians and surgeons?—I would not wish to say so. Their Charter of Incorporation is a complicated one, and there is some difficulty in settling what their exact privileges are; I have heard it doubted how far the privileges of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow extend to the case of a person proposing to practise purely as a physician under a degree of medicine obtained at any of the universities, or in England ; at all events, I know positively, that the physicians of Edinburgh do practise in Glas- gow as consulting physicians, going thither for that purpose. Confining the question to the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, they exert no restric- tion or exclusive privilege whatever in respect to English graduates. At the present monent, there is one English graduate in the College who joined the College lately, and who was received exactly upon the same terms as the graduates of Scotland. 1525. Would an Edinburgh graduate have a title to practise as a physician, with equal privileges in London, without obtaining a license to practise from the College of Physicians in London?—No, but he would be received now upon the same footing as an English graduate ; he would be admitted into the College on the same terms as a graduate of Oxford or Cambridge or the London University. That was not the case formerly, because one of the grievances com- plained of some years ago was, that Scotch graduates were not admitted into the College of Physicians of London upon the same terms with the graduates of the English universities; but that difference is now done away with. 1526. With respect to the Scotch system in itself, is there any complaint of the state of practice with regard to the license over Scotland being too free any- where ?—No ; none whatever. 1,527. Is there any complaint of its being too restricted in respect of privileged districts ?—None, except within the Glasgow district. 1528. Is there any complaint with respect to the way and manner in which degrees are conferred by the universities ?—Yes. 1529. What is that complaint?—There is a complaint in Scotland, that the education and examination of candidates are not equally complete and severe at the several universities. 1530. In what universities are they thought most deficient, or deficient? In St. Andrew’s, and in King’s College, Aberdeen, the greatest laxity is believed to have prevailed. 1531. Does it prevail now, according to your understanding?—Not to so great a degree. 1532. In either of those Colleges?—By no means to so great a degree; but still the system of education and examination in those Colleges is not satis- factory. 1533. The Edinburgh University grants degrees of doctor of medicine, does not it?—It does. 1534. Upon what education, and after what examination; will you be kind enough to tell us generally?—I have here an important document, which was drawn up in 1843, in a tabular form, showing the relative education of all the great educating and incorporated bodies, including the Universities of Scotland the University of London, the three Royal Colleges of Surgeons, the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons in Glasgow, the Apothecaries’ Company in London, and the medical departments of the army and navy. It is, I believe, at the present moment complete, with a manuscript alteration for the newest curriculum of the Royal College of Surgeons of London. 1535. This document, which you are now producing, with the manuscript alterations, brings up the state of education required by the different bodies referred to here, as you understand it, correctly, to the present day?—To the present time. 153^ This](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24906803_0012.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
