A letter to the Right Hon. Sir George Grey, bart., M.P. ... on medical registration, and the present condition of the medical corporations / by Emeritus.

Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to the Right Hon. Sir George Grey, bart., M.P. ... on medical registration, and the present condition of the medical corporations / by Emeritus. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    1. Eoyal College of Physicians, consisting of seven elects, fellows, candidates, inceptor candidates, licentiates, and extra licentiates, under a president and three censors, who constitute the examining board for the license ; for the extra license the examiners are the president and three elects. Note.—The Charter of the London College of Physicians ex- cludes every one from practising as physicians attending upon cases purely medical, in London, and seven miles arouud. The jurisdiction of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge is said to extend to the right of practising medicine throughout the whole realm with the exception of the London district j the privileges arising from admission into the college, are not limited to that district, but extend over England and Wales. Licentiates and extra licentiates, have no voice in the direction of the affairs of the college, and the latter are prohibited from practising in the Lon- don district. 2. Eoyal College of Surgeons, consisting of fellows and members, or licentiates, under a president, council, and court of examiners. Note.—London College of Surgeons grants no legal right worth possessing. Its diploma is only an honorary distinction in surgery and its handmaid anatomy and physiology; by itself, it constitutes the lowest professional qualification of any in the United Kingdom or elsewhere. The College, by straining and striving to be the only one devoted to the advancement of pure surgery, sends forth more unqualified practitioners, inflicts more public injury, and encourages idleness to a greater degree among medical students than any of the medical corporations. Its examination is too much restricted, its diploma too easily obtained; and with that document alone, owing to the non-enforcement of the law, which, if strictly enforced would be unjust, large numbers are pursuing their professional avocations in all its branches, although only examined in a few. It is necessary that that College, if it con- tinues to limit its examinations, should be barred from granting its diploma to any person who has not passed the examinations in medicine, chemistry, midwifery, etc., as required by other medical institutions and surgical colleges; until that js carried out.