On the present state of the medical profession in England : being the annual oration delivered before the members of the British Medical Association, on the 21st October, 1841 / by Robert E. Grant.

  • Robert Edmond Grant
Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the present state of the medical profession in England : being the annual oration delivered before the members of the British Medical Association, on the 21st October, 1841 / by Robert E. Grant. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    to be called Doctor of Medicine, or Doctor of Surgery, which names are both adopted in France ; or Physician of the Head, or Physician of the Eyes, or of other parts, as among the ancient Egyptians ; or Doctor of Medicine and of Surgery, as at present used in the University of Bern; will not be of any importance as to his rank in society, or his grade in the profession. His taste, his prospects, his opportunities, or other circum- stances will best determine his selection of a future career ; and the superiority of a brother practi- tioner will alone depend on superior knowledge or skill, which he will feel no degradation in acknow- ledging. In a profession pre-eminently distinguished for acts of charity, the proposition of establishing a grade of learned practitioners for the rich, and of ignorant for the poor, is revolting to humanity, especially as the privations to which the sick poor are necessarily subjected, demand for the treatment of their maladies, infinitely more skill and know- ledge, than those which affect the rich surrounded with every comfort which affluence can secure. And the idea of leaving our brave countrymen, in the army and navy, so much exposed to accidents and maladies in all climates, entirely at the mercy of half-educated medical men, of an inferior and cheaper grade, is not less impolitic than it is re- pugnant to every charitable and benevolent feeling. The advantage and propriety of uniformity of rank, privilege, and education, among the members of our profession, are illustrated by the fact of a naval
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