The London medical schools.

  • Gilbert, William, 1804-1890.
Date:
[1877?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The London medical schools. 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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    <4 (1 a) THE LONDON MEDICAL SCHOOLS. Of the members of the different professions and occupations prrfcti^ed in England there are none more justly respected thy£i otir medical men, not only fulfilling as they do the ordinary duties of good jitizens, but, as a rule, making themselves liked and treated with onfidence by the great body of those with whom they come in 3ontact. In fact, it would be almost impossible to find any house in vhich the family doctor is not looked upon as a trusted friend. \gain, hardly worked and badly remunerated as the greater portion the profession indisputably are, there are few among us—the lergy themselves not excluded—who perform more acts of charity, i>r with greater cost of labour to themselves. And yet, during the period of their medical education, there is—if police and newspaper •eports are to be trusted—no class or profession of young men who jorno more frequently into collision with the authorities, or exhibit nore frequent instances of ungentlemanly behaviour. It has been :omputed that during the last year, comprising the disgraceful riot i vhich took place in Mr. Spurgeon’s Tabernacle, in which many unoffending persons were seriously assaulted at a public meeting, he objects of which did not meet the views of the medical students here assembled, no fewer than four hundred, out of the two housand medical students in London, have come directly or indi- rectly under the notice of the police. It has further been calculated hat more medical students have misconducted themselves in the metropolis during the last winter sessions than the students of all other professions put together, not excluding those of the ITniver- fities of Oxford and Cambridge. Many reasons have been given for this extraordinary difference between the unruly conduct of our medical students, and the admi- rable behaviour of the profession at large ; but none of these reasons appear to be of a very satisfactory nature. Some describe them as having always been rowdies, from whom nothing better might be expected. Yet among a large proportion of the young men that center the profession, it would be difficult to find examples of higher talent or more gentlemanly instincts. Yet even these are so fully aware of the bad odour in which our medical students as a body are field, that when not positively engaged in their studies, they fre- quently conceal the fact of their studentship, and only acknowledge themselves as members of the profession when they have obtained their diplomas. Some cause must exist for the present unsatis- factory state of things, and if the subject be rightly considered, it if