Reasons for rejecting the amended Medical Bill, June 1856 / by W.T. Gairdner.

  • Gairdner, W. T. (William Tennant), Sir, 1824-1907
Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Reasons for rejecting the amended Medical Bill, June 1856 / by W.T. Gairdner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    promised by this equivocal position of some of its distin¬ guished members % Will not these appointments, like all other political appointments, become the subjects of heated discussion, and much canvassing of the personal and political qualifications of those who hold them % Will not those who are best fittest, through experience and character, to represent the profession, shrink from encountering the atmosphere of public life, to which they are so little accustomed, and leave the Medical Council to men of a far more questionable sort, whose object is not so much to perform a duty to the public, as to surround themselves with a fictitious reputation % Such are the considerations which, it appears to me, ought to influence all who have the interests of MedicalEducation at heart, in strenuously opposing this Medical Bilk I cannot help viewing it as one of the most insidious and dangerous measures that has ever been on the table of the House. That the Government, and a portion of the non-medical public, wearied out by the incessant efforts of medical reformers, and by the apparently hopeless col¬ lision of medical interests, should seek to end the struggle by such a measure as this, cannot be regarded as wonderful; but, that the medical profession, free hitherto, and distinguished among the other learned professions by its freedom, should now consent to sell its birthright for such a mess of pottage as this Bill contains, I cannot believe. I trust, on the contrary, that this unguarded measure may be the means of opening the eyes of some of us, who, having hitherto found the Government to be too much of King Log in matters of Medical Education, are now likely to be delivered over into the jaws of King Stork. Edinburgh, 19th June 1856.