To the Right Hon. Colonel Stanley, Secretary of State for War.

  • Aitken, William Henry, Sir, 1825-1892.
Date:
[1878]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: To the Right Hon. Colonel Stanley, Secretary of State for War. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    satisfactory when I see such results as these—that men not only cannot very frequently, as I know is the case, write an intelligible report of a case, but cannot put up a fractured limb, aud cannot perform such an operation as passing a catheter without danger to the person operated upon, and this even in the case of men who are well educated, and who will be eventually extremely useful practitioners. I cannot conceive, then, that the state of medical education is satisfactory. And the question is— not to occupy the Council too long—how this Council may deal with what I consider a very unsatisfactory state of things. And I believe the Council can deal with it in this way, and in this way only. They must deal first with the examinations. They must see that these are such as they should be. I do not demand a high standard of examination. I do riot demand anything more than that in the examinations it shall be seen that a man is not dangerous; if possible, that he should be gifted with such knowledge that will enable him to do good to the patients he is called upon to treat. Dr. Shakpey could confirm what Dr. Parkes had said as to the extreme insufficiency in point of practical skill of some of the candidates who present themselves for examination for the Army Medical Service. Some years ago, Mr. Paget and Mr. Busk had invited him to be present at the examination in Operative Surgery. Many of the candidates performed the operations rightly; but one, being required to cut down and tie the subclavian artery, raised instead the omo-hyoid muscle; another, to tie the iliac artery, cut through everything—skin, muscle, and peritoneum, and, in stitching up the wound, left portions of omentum protruding through it. Mr. Arnott had listened carefully to the speech of Dr. Parkes, whom he was glad to see in the Council. He was aware, when the army exami- nations were going on, that men having licences from the different corporate bodies aud universities had been rejected. He had obtained from the army board a list of the rejected candidates; and these were furnished from all the licensing bodies, except Oxford aud Cambridge ; not from any one in particular. In his opinion, Dr. Parkes was quite justified in supporting the necessity of a second examination for the Army Aiedical Service. Having been engaged in teaching during thirty years, he was perfectly satisfied that the essential defect of the present candidates was not ignorance of doctrine, but a want of practical knowledge of their profession. Tie was present at an examination at University College in Surgery. One man was asked to put a splint on the arm: lie did not know the difference between the splint for the arm and the splint for the leg; and when he came to apply it, he did not know whether it was for the front or the back of the arm. Dr. Fleming,—With respect to the double examination, the eloquent address of Dr. Parkes must convince them of the necessity of a special examination for the army at least. It might be that inferior candidates had gone up; but whether it were so or not, the fact that all these gentle-