The touchstone of medical reform; in three letters, addressed to Sir Robert Harry Inglis, bart / [Joseph Henry Green].

  • Green, Joseph Henry, 1791-1863
Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The touchstone of medical reform; in three letters, addressed to Sir Robert Harry Inglis, bart / [Joseph Henry Green]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    bers of the profession throughout England and its vast dependencies, for preserving the unity of the profession in the spirit of ever expanding science, and of professional honor. That their means of ex¬ ercising these salutary functions might be enlarged cannot be doubted; but we shall in vain look for the same capabilities of maintaining a living inter¬ communion of the whole actual profession in any institutions, of which the sole purpose terminates in the completion of education. But if the universities and the medical corpora¬ tions have each their appropriate character and functions, must we necessarily forego the advantages of either, because their claims to the privileges of licensing may be conflicting ? Is the word “ Reform ” always to awake the bitterness of party-spirit and the divisions of hostile feuds ? Surely that true reform which works in the aim of progressive improvement, with the continual avoidance (as far as may be) of the evils of change and innovation, is the better spirit of peace and conciliation ;—and it is, to say the least, difficult to understand, why the projectors and founders of the London University should have foregone the advantages offered by the established institutions of the metropolis, in which the facilities existed, and the requisites were already completed, of conducting the examinations, of which a license to practise is the reward. It is, however, surely not too late to retrieve an error, which may be fatal to the peace and welfare of the profession ; and no one,