Introductory lecture to the course of materia medica and pharmacy, in the University of Pennsylvania / by George B. Wood, M.D.

  • Wood, George B. (George Bacon), 1797-1879.
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Introductory lecture to the course of materia medica and pharmacy, in the University of Pennsylvania / by George B. Wood, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    great body of English practitioners, being apothecaries, have their time too much engrossed by the pursuit of two distinct branches of business to allow much of it to be devoted to further study. It remains only that I should give a hasty sketch of the or- ganization of the profession in other parts of the United King- dom. In Ireland, it is almost an exact copy of that existing in England:—the same classes of practitioners; the same licensing and graduating authorities; the same system of medical instruc- tion. There are in Ireland, as in England, Physicians, Surgeons, and Apothecaries. Dublin has its King and Queen's College of Physicians, its Royal College of Surgeons, and its Apothecaries' Hall, closely analogous in their constitution and privileges to the corresponding institutions in London. There is also the Dublin University or Trinity College, which confers degrees in medicine; but differs from the English universities in having a completely organized school of medicine connected immediately with it; in this respect, resembling the Scotch universities and our own. But there are numerous other schools in Dublin, private or con- nected with the hospitals, in which the large classes of the surgeons and apothecaries mostly receive their education; but they neither confer degrees, nor give any license to practise. Most of the students who aim at the medical degree resort, or until recently have resorted, to the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. I was told that the class of apothecaries or gene- ral practitioners are not equal in attainment to the English; as the Dublin Apothecaries' Hall is less rigid in its examinations, and less exacting in its requisitions than the analogous society of London. The two degrees of Bachelor and Doctor of Medi- cine are conferred by the Dublin University, the former being regarded as a sufficient license to practise, and the latter merely as an honour. In relation to Scotland, I confess that I have less precise information than of the two other sections of the kingdom. My journey through North Britain was so rapid, and my attention so much engrossed by obvious objects, that I failed to make full inquiries. But, from what I did see and hear, and from the comparative facility with which the degree of Doctor of Medi- cine, hitherto I believe the only one conferred by the Scottish schools, may be obtained, I have inferred, that physicians, or, in other words, graduates in medicine, are much more numerous