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 1848. 1449. Do the Committee understand you to say that there is hardly anybody in Scotland calling himself a surgeon who confines himself strictly to what may be considered surgical cases, or surgical practice ?—Not since Professor Syme left us. 1450. All the other persons practising as surgeons, and under that title, are in fact practising as general practitioners do in the country !— I should qualify my evidence so far as to say that they practise also in that way, but several do practise as London surgeons ; they practise the higher operations of surgery, for example, and as consulting surgeons, but at the same time they combine with that practice the practice of the general practitioners in England. 1451. With the exception of one or two cases, the surgeons in Edinburgh do not dispense medicines ?—Exactly. 1452. Is it so in Glasgow, or is the practice of dispensing medicine much more general there? It is more general in Glasgow; I cannot speak as to the extent of it. 1453. And through the country the practice of dispensing medicine is very general with those who practise as surgeons ?— Very general. 1454. In fact, the medical practitioners in the country, with few exceptions, unite all branches of practice ; they practise as physicians, as surgeons proper, and as general practitioners, and in most cases perhaps dispense medicines ?— Yes; there is, however, this difference, apparently a slight one, yet a very im- portant one, in country medical practice and throughout Scotland in general, their income does not depend at all upon dispensing medicines; they charge fees besides, and a great number charge a mere remunerating price for their medicines, so that the dispensing of medicines is no object to them, and I believe that, with scarcely any exception, the general practitioners in Scotland, if they could do without dispensing medicines, would prefer it. 145.5. They do not wish to make profit by pharmacy?—No. 1456. And therefore where there are druggists shops, in general the practice of dispensing is either given up or is very much abridged, and they send their patients for medicines to druggists ?—Precisely. 1457. Will you be kind enough to explain to the Committee (and you may consider the Committee if you please quite ignorant of the whole matter) in what manner the privileges and rights of practising either as physicians or as surgeons, as you have explained it, are conferred ?—There is, in the first instance, the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, the privileges of which are confined to the old town of Edinburgh. 1458. Sir R. H. Inglis.] By the old town do you mean literally the boun- daries of the old town?—The old town bounded by the old city wall; and one of the old suburbs is also expressly mentioned in the charter. It has no privilege beyond that consequently at the present moment. 1459. Is “ the old town ” a conventional term, or a legal definition of a cer- tain district ?—I use it as a conventional term to indicate what was the legal definition at the time, and continues so. The consequence of this limitation is, that the hall of the College of Physicians has for the last 70 years been beyond the territory of its own jurisdiction. The privilege possessed by the College of Physicians has not been enforced for a century. 1460. Chairman.'] There is no instance of their prosecuting either at all, or of prosecuting successfully, for any breach of their privilege within their own bounds limited to the old town ?—No cases of either prosecution or attempts at molestation of any kind. 1461. So that their bound, in the first place, is very limited, limited to the old town; and, in the next place, within this bound there is practically no enforcement of the privilege?—There is no enforcement of the privilege. 1462. Mr. Wakley.] Will you define what the College considers it has the power to claim as a privilege ?—The exclusive right to practise as physicians within the boundaries of the ancient city, and what was then a suburb of the city, called the Potter-row. 1463. Does the charter define in what the practice of the physician consists? —No, I do not think so. 1464. Sir R. H. Inglis] What is the date of the charter ? —Perhaps these minutiae had better be deferred till the representative of the College of Phy- sicians gives his evidence, because, although I am conversant with the principal facts, and although I am President of the College, I have not made myself aware](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24906803_0008.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
