Remarks on medical reform, in a letter addressed to the Right Hon. Sir James Graham / By Sir James Clark.

  • Clark, James, Sir, 1788-1870.
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on medical reform, in a letter addressed to the Right Hon. Sir James Graham / By Sir James Clark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Note A. p. 10. To the proposal that the profession in future should con¬ sist of two divisions only, Bachelors of Medicine and Doctors of Medicine, it may be objected, that a sufficient supply of candidates would not he found possessing the amount of preli¬ minary and medical education required of the Bachelor, and that men with such an education will not practise in thinly- populated districts. To the first objection I would oppose all past experience,—that raising the qualification has not had the effect of diminishing the number of candidates. Look, for instance, at the University of London : notwithstanding the amount of preliminary education required, and the much more extended and more searching nature of the medical examina¬ tions, the result is greatly in favour of a higher rate of qualifi¬ cation. Ilad the Government granted to this body the power of licensing their graduates in medicine, I firmly believe that in less than five years the College of Surgeons and the Apothe¬ caries’ Hall might have shut their doors, although the exami¬ nations of the University are more extensive and more search¬ ing than those of both these bodies put together. From what does this proceed, but from the fact, that the higher, within reasonable limits, that an honorary reward is pitched, the greater is the desire to possess it ? There may be a question whether the preliminary education required by the University of London is not a little too high for a fewr years to come; but no one is fit to enter on the practice of his profession with less medical information than that required of a Bachelor of that institution; and I trust that strong proofs will be required of the necessity of having a low'er grade and a less instructed class of medical practitioners in this country than in the other countries of Europe, before such a proposition is acceded to. Should, however, such a class be decided on, then I w'ould only ask that it may be left optional to the student to choose between that course of education which makes him merely an