The Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons under the Medical Act : the introductory address at Surgeons' Hall, session 1861-62 / by John Struthers.

  • Struthers, John, Sir, 1823-1899.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons under the Medical Act : the introductory address at Surgeons' Hall, session 1861-62 / by John Struthers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    conferred by charter or other legal enactment. The words Medicine and Surgery have a general or popular acceptation in familiar language, and a specific acceptation within the profession and in kgal enactments, the legal distinction being the expres*- sion of the professional distinction. We speak familiarly of the medical profession, medical education, the study of Medicine, the Medical Act, the Medical Council, all in a general sense. But whenever we come to legal authority, as in the charters of the various medical and surgical bodies, or Acts of Parliament, the terms are used in their technical sense. .The Medical Act is styled An Act to regulate the Qualifications of Practitioners in Medicine and Surgery, and each person registered under it is entitled according to his qualification or qualifications, to practise Medicine or Surgery, or Medicine and Surgery, as the case may be. The error of supposing that a body which is authorized for one department, by taking upon itself to examine in both, can thereby license in both, is therefore obvious. A. glance at the first principles involved will make it evident why it ought to be so. The assumption would render every institution the arbiter of its own power, and would go to this that any society, or school, or any handful of us, or indeed any one of us, might de*- ceive the public by giving se-called diplomas, and thus put an entire end to their significance. The object of having diplomas given only under legal authority, that is of having licenses at all, is this—that the Legislature will give such power only to those to whom it can be appropriately entrusted, so that the possession of the diploma has an understood public value. In no other way is this attainable, nor can any harm come of it so long as the license is within reach of all who possess the requisite attainments, the more especially as there is no penalty against the unqualified for merely engaging in practice, but only for endeavouring to deceive the public by pretending to be legally qualified. Hence the importance attached to chartered or legal
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