Volume 1

Examination of the president and examiners of the Royal College of Physicians of London ... : with an analysis of the evidence given before the Select Committee of the House of Commons; and suggestions for an improved system of medical government / [Edwards Crisp].

  • Crisp, Edwards, 1806-1882.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Examination of the president and examiners of the Royal College of Physicians of London ... : with an analysis of the evidence given before the Select Committee of the House of Commons; and suggestions for an improved system of medical government / [Edwards Crisp]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    2S MEDICAL EEFORM. Have you always been a medical reformer? Yes, I was one of the first members of the British Medical Association. Would not this circumstance alone be sufficient to ensure your rejection at the College of Physicians? I believe so. State your reasons for joining this Association ? I had for a long time witnessed the injurious effects of the present state of medical government both as regards the public good and the welfare of the profession at large. Give a general outline of the present state of the medical profes¬ sion? In this country there are nineteen licensing bodies, (including the Archbishop of Canterbury) who grant diplomas; these institu¬ tions not only require a different course of study, but their diplomas vary in price from 25 shillings to 70 guineas. The members of these corporate bodies are most of them self-elected and irresponsible, and their chief desire appears to be to put money into their own pockets. Thus, they are not only well paid for the examination of candidates, but they compel these candidates to attend certain Hospitals to which many of them are attached, and to enter to certain courses of lectures, which they deliver, and for which they are paid by the students. These antagonistic bodies have acted as clogs on the wheel of science ; they have looked only to their own narrow circles and petty interests, and the little good they have done has not been voluntary, but it has been forced upon them by public opinion and pressure from without; and I believe that the old rotten borough system was not so corrupt as that which now exists in the medical and surgical corporate bodies of this country. That these bodies have beheld with indifference and unconcern the many wrongs and insults to which the profession has been subjected, and until the present system of self-election, nepotism, and corrup¬ tion is entirely changed; there is no possibility of the profession taking that position in the country, which its great usefulness and importance entitle it to. For Mffiat purpose was the British Medical Association formed? For the pm-pose of effecting a change in the Medical and Surgical Institutions of this country. What were the principles of this Association? The following extract from the Lancet will explain them. At meetings of the Council of the British Medical Association, held at Exeter Hall, on the 9th and 16th of July, 1839, a Report of the Sub-committee, appointed to take into consideration the preamble and clauses of a Bill for carry¬ ing into effect a general measure of Medical Reform for Great Britain and Ireland, having been read, and discussed at great length,— The following resolutions, embodying the fundamental principles on which