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
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

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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    masons Tavern, for the purpose of taking into immediate consideration the Measures in progress, and to determine on the propriety of appointing further witnesses to state the case of the Members of the College of Surgeons before the Committee of the House of Commons. The advertisement convening the Meeting was inserted in only one of the medical periodicals, and the number of individuals who attended this Meeting did not exceed twenty-seven, of which number several were known to be present as spectators only. Resolutions were nevertheless passed, and no less than four individuals connected with this Meeting were called before the Parliamentary Committee to give evidence against the principles agreed upon. The following are the Resolutions in question :— [Copy.] 1. Moved by P. Cartwright, Esq., of Oswestry, and seconded by T. Abraham, Esq “That the present Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons are sufficient, if properly modified, for the requirements of the profession, and that the formation of a third and inferior in¬ corporation is totally unnecessary.” 2. Moved by T. Lewis, Esq., and seconded by W. S. Gill, Esq.: —“ That this meeting feels bound to express its strong disapproba¬ tion of the course taken by the Council of the College of Surgeons in accepting the Charter of 1843, whereby the feelings of a very numerous body of educated men were deeply wounded by the selec¬ tion of a limited number of gentlemen to form a new grade in the college, at the expence of the members at large—a proceeding which was not only unnecessary, but created invidious distinctions where none pre¬ viously existed. That, in the opinion of this Meeting, the charter of 1843 should be repealed, and another, securing the constitutional principle of representation to the members, should be substituted in its place.” Almost simultaneously with this meeting, another meeting of Surgeons appears to have taken place at Colchester, at which a petition to the Legislature was agreed upon. It is with re-
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