Laws, list of officers for the year 1870-71, and of the honorary members and members : to which is added a report of the annual meeting ... July 13th, 1870 / Poor-Law Medical Officers' Association.

Date:: [1870]

Credit: Laws, list of officers for the year 1870-71, and of the honorary members and members : to which is added a report of the annual meeting ... July 13th, 1870 / Poor-Law Medical Officers' Association. 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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$ashamed to sec the miserable stipends paid to men of that profession in return for important services. [Hear.] It was impossible for that ]>oard to pay more; but he believed that attention was being diiccted to the condition of medical men, and he trusted that remedies would be found for existing evils. [Cheers.] He looked forward to attempts being made next se.«.sion to improve the sanitary laws, and he took credit to himself for doing something in that direcl ion in giving supplies of water to towns; and though he, as a riparian pioprictor, was one of the lirst victims of his own act, he believed the measure he referred to would be a very beneficial one to the community for which it was made. [Cheers.] He had, he confessed, a personal interest in the profession, as his brother was a member of it, and was Uepuly-Inspector of Hosjfilals in India; and his sympathies had been enli.sted frequently on evidence which had con- vinced him of the great injustice which was often shown the jirofe.s.sion. He felt convinced the House of Commons would do anything which could fairly be done to improve the condition of the medical men, [Cheers.] Sir JouN Gray said he accepted the association of his name with the toast as a great compliment. Though he had the like sympatliy with the profession which the late Lord Advoeate had expressed, yet his sympathy arose from a different cause, for he had the honour of being himself p member of it. [Cheers.] When he selected that profession, contrary to the wish of his friends, he did so because he looked upon it as the most honourable of all professions, and he still felt towards it the same love, the same sympathy, and the same devotion, for he regarded it as one of the most humanising of all the studies in which men could engage. [Cheers.] He desired to express his thanks to the late Lord Advocate for his sanitary measures, and for himself he could say he was striving to do fnr the waters of Dublin what had been done for the Thames, and he was endeavouring to improve the education of those who purposed entering the profession. [Cheers.] He had directed public attention to this matter of medical education, and he had forced the Government to give it consideration. He went on to explain the reasons which had actuated him in taking this course ; and he related that when training as a medical student, he gave so much attention to certain branches of his medical education as to totally neglect other matters and being suddenly called upon to undergo an examination, he crammed so succes.sfully that he not only passed in matters of which he had no practical knowledge, but he was congratulated by his examiners. He never, he s^aid, ucted upon the powers given him by this examination, but studied afresh, and he had used his best exertions since to require from the candidates for the Medical profession proof that they had practical acquaintance with disease, and were capable of dealing with human pjain before bcii^g empowered to practice on the human frame, and such proof, he said could only be gi\cn at the bed-side. He proceeded to speak upon the importance of having but one standard examination by all the examining bodies, for then, he said, one degree would be as good as another, and everyone woidd then know what a degree meant, which was not clear now, and the public would then know that a man who could call himself a licentiate of a medical body, would be capable of dealing with the ills which flesh is heir to. He thought that this equality of standard would raise the pro- fession in the eyes of the public, and that public bodies having need of the medical man would then no longer be able to treat the profession otherwise than honourably, thus causing tho.se miserable stipends, of which mention had been made, to be known no more. [Cheers.] The Chairman .said it was now his privilege to propose the toast of the evening—Success to the Fcor-Law Medical Officers' Association. [Cheers.] He said the Association commenced with 26 members, at the end of the$