Case of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in relation to the medical Bills now before Parliament.

  • Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Case of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in relation to the medical Bills now before Parliament. 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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    to the Return ordered by the House of Commons, amounts to £66,557 11s. In connexion with the Museum, it may be stated that three Lectureships are maintained by the College for the purposes of scientific instruction, viz. a Professorship of Human Anatomy and Surgery; a Professorship of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology; and a Professorship of Histology, or Microscopic Anatomy; and that the admission to these lectures is gra- tuitous. This brief sketch of the mode in which the College of Sur- geons disposes of its revenue,—rendered necessary by the evi- dence of misapprehension on the subject,—may be terminated, without entering into further details, by the statement that upwards of £25,000 has been expended by the College in the formation and maintenance of a Library, comprising between 40,000 and 50,000 volumes, restricted to Medicine and its col- lateral sciences, but constituting the most complete body of re- ference on these subjects in the kingdom, if not in the world. The object of the preceding statement is to show the national importance of the College of Surgeons as the only recognized Institution in England for the maintenance and promotion of scientific Surgery; and this College may safely appeal to the present state of the surgical profession, composed, as it is, of Members and Fellows of the College, as proof that it has con- tributed, and does contribute, largely to the acknowledged supe- riority of British Surgery. It has been shown that the College, as representative of the interests of Surgei’y, is governed by an elective Council, and, in legislating for the profession, directly under the control of Her Majesty’s Government. It cannot be doubted, then, in the absence of all proof, and even of any allegation of mismanagement or inefficiency, that the College of Surgeons of England is adequately constituted, and com- petently performs its responsible duties of testing the qualifica- tions of Surgical Practitioners, and of promoting the art and science of Surgery, in accordance with the design of its Royal Founder. But if, as is here confidently asserted, the College be adequate to all the purposes for which such an institution is intended, it may be naturally asked, M^hy the Council of the College should be found to be promoters of Mr. Headlam’s Bill, which proposes to establish a superior or general Medical Council, and opponents of a similar proposal, contained in the Bill of Lord Elcho, as framed by the Select Committee ? The answer is easy. The proposed in Mr. Hcadlam’s Bill is entrusted only with so much of the government of the profession as may be neces-