Observations on the present system of medical education, with a view to medical reform / by a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians of London.

Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the present system of medical education, with a view to medical reform / by a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians of London. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    Although Physicians may aspire to be amalga- mated with the Aristocracy, and become Baronets or even Peers, it is only a certain class who can hope for this honour. There are different kinds of Physicians; but the great difference consists in having been educated at one of the two English universities, which entitles you to become a Fellow of the College ; or taking a diploma from some other university, and being ad- mitted as a Licentiate, with the privilege of prac- tising in London and seven miles around. Situated in Pail-Mall East, emerged from the smoke of Warwick Lane and the shambles of Newgate Market, stands the Temple of Physic, differing from that of Janus, inasmuch as its gates are ever open. Here is felt the real influence of medical rank,—I might say of medical aristocracy. Though the temple is open to all, there are high and low places in the synagogue. To see the King, or to be at court — to sit on the Treasury, or on the cross benches — are not more different in their way than to be among the multitude who sip tea at the monthly meetings, and to be of th6 elect who re- tire afterwards to sup in Street. So much for the highest class of medical men in England; and now for the second, or what are styled Surgeons, pure surgeons, or noun-substantive surgeons. In the centre of Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, midway between the east and the west, descending a little in aristocratic locality, near the Inns of Court and
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