Report of the Council of the National Institute of General Practioners in Medicine, Surgery and Midwifery, on the present state of the medical reform question ... August 9th, 1848.

National Institute of General Practitioners in Medicine, Surgery and Midwifery.

Date:: 1848

Credit: Report of the Council of the National Institute of General Practioners in Medicine, Surgery and Midwifery, on the present state of the medical reform question ... August 9th, 1848. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$[Copy.] THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE, SURGERY, and MIDWIFERY. — The attention of the profession is hereby called to the following particulars relating to the MEDICAL REGISTRATION BILL, now before the House of Commons:— First—By Clause 4 any person who, subsequently to the passing of the bill, shall obtain a diploma, certificate, or licence, granted by any English, Irish, or Scotch university, college or society, or any corporation legally entitled to grant the same, will be entitled to register. And by Clause 10 every individual having registered, will be entitled to practise all the branches of the profession. Thus, supposing that this bill become a law, a certificate from any college of surgeons entitled to grant certificates, however limited the education or inadequate the examination, Avould entitle the holder thereof to practise in every branch of the profession, including medicine and midwifery; and a certificate from any apothecaries’ society, although the holder thereof shall have received no surgical education, and shall not have undergone any examination in surgery, will, nevertheless, entitle him to practise surgery, as well as medicine and midwifery. Secondly—The bill does not provide for uniformity of education. It declares, by clause 23, that ait is expedient and desirable that the qualifications” for testimonials should be uniform, u according to the nature thereof j” throughout Great Britain and Ireland. The words in italics show, unequivocally, that for the future one standard of qualification will be required for apothecaries—another for sur¬ geons—another for physicians, although by the Registrar’s certificate all will be placed on an equality, and be alike entitled to practise every branch of the profession; and it is particularly to be observed, that the bill will thus confirm the recent policy of the College of Surgeons, in making a high standard of qualification for t\\e fellow¬ ship, attainable by a few individuals only, and a low standard for the membership—the future with the present members of the college constituting the great body of general practitioners. Thirdly—The National Association of General Practitioners in Medicine, Surgery, and Midwifery, and the National Institute, by resolutions at public meetings, and by all their published documents, have at all times declared the expediency of legalizing and placing upon an equality in one institution, all qualified members of the profession now in general practice. The sole, avowed, universally acknowledged, and approved object of this has been to secure the public interests by obtaining for the general practitioners in future a complete medical and surgical education, and by preventing any individual practising the profession after the passing of a measure of$