Introductory address at the public opening of the Medical Session 1867-68, in the University of Glasgow / by Allen Thomson, M.D.

  • Allen Thomson
Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Introductory address at the public opening of the Medical Session 1867-68, in the University of Glasgow / by Allen Thomson, M.D. 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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    t 10 form the introduction to every learned profession;—and whether you have acquired those elements of a liberal education which will secure for you hereafter, when thrown upon your own resources, that place in the estimation of the public which is due to the learning and humanity of pur profession,—but which has too often been withheld through the want of those accessory accomplish- ments which mark the man of general education. It has been often observed that medical men, as a class, do not in general obtain the social position which is accorded to the members of the other learned professions, such as those of the law or the church; and there is too much reason to believe that this has arisen partly from the fact that many persons, perhaps other- wise estimable in character and skilled in mere professional matters, have obtained legal qualifications to practise, and even University Degrees, without possessing that original cultivation of mind and taste which proceeds from early training in general education. It was the conviction of the truth of this view, and of the important practical deduction that naturally flowed from it, that the improve- ment of the status and qualifications of medical men in this country was more certainly to follow, in the first instance, the amelioration of their general culture, than the extension of their professional education, which induced the General Medical Council to give early attention to this subject, and to frame recommendations as to pre- liminary education which have been very generally adopted and acted upon by the licensing boards throughout the country. By these recommendations, which may now be considered as having the force of laws, you are aware that, although there is no positive prohibition to engage in medical study at any time or in any way that may oflfer, yet, in order that such study should form a part of the course required for obtaining a license or degree, it is necessary, in the first place, that the student should have passed an examination in general education, upon which he may be registered as a Medical Student, and that after such registra- tion, a period of four years shall be passed in professional study before any legal qualification can be obtained. The wisdom of this enactment has received ample acknow- ledgement in the readiness with which it has been followed by almost all the licensing bodies ; and it is not too much to say that its practical utility has been already shown by the improvement which begins to be apparent in the attainments of candidates for medical honours and licenses in various parts of the country.
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