Quacks, false remedies and the public health / [David Walsh].

  • Walsh, David
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Quacks, false remedies and the public health / [David Walsh]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    this case the four elects, would at the same time abolish the duty of prosecuting local quacks vested in the Royal College of Physicians of London, must be left to the lawyers to decide. So far as the State control of quacks and quackery is practically affected by the various Acts that have been discussed, the position may be thus summed up: Henry VIII. instituted a properly guarded medical qualification, and conferred upon the Royal College ef Physicians of London the duty of prosecuting all who practised without a licence in London and seven miles round, as well as persons who sold false remedies and drugs. That duty was carried out intermittently for some hundreds of years, and we find it asserted in the first “Medical Directory,” published in 184s, that “The President and Court (2) of the College have the power of committing individuals contemning their authority to Newgate. This power has been exercised by the Court, but not of late years.” (4) <A similar statement appeared almost yearly to 1854. In 1858 the Medical Act of that year established penal powers over illegal medical practice, but the Act does not appear to have affected the existing powers of the Royal College of Physicians of London. The amend- ing Act of 1860, however, dealing with the College, abolished the elects, and possibly, as already said, may at the same time have rendered nugatory the punitive powers of the College conferred by the Charter of Henry VIII., which entrusted the discharge of those duties to the elects. Whatever the exact legal position may be in 1900, it may be safely stated that, at any rate, from 1518 to 1860, there were sum- mary powers in existence for dealing with quacks and quackery ; that these powers were more or less inter- mittently enforced for at least between 200 and 300 years, and that their existence has been admitted by the College up to 1909. The principle of these powers over unqualified practice has been adopted in the penal section of the Medical Act, 1858. Owing to the various interpretations of this section the provision has proved of little use in restraining illegal practice. It is to be hoped, therefore, that the General Medical Council will take steps to ascertain the exact legal position of the Royal College of Physicians of London, and incidentally also of Scotland and Irte- land, as regards the control of unqualified medical practice. Nor is it less important to the medical pro- (a) It is obvious that a definition of the term “Court” is necessary, if it refers to the Council or the fellows or members of the College. The penal powers may be vested in the President and “Court,” apart from the eleots. : (6) “Churchill’s Medical Directory,” 1846. —.