Third report from the Select Committee on Medical Registration and Medical Law amendment : together with the minutes of evidence and appendix.

  • Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on Medical Registration and Medical Law Amendment.
Date:
1848
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Third report from the Select Committee on Medical Registration and Medical Law amendment : together with the minutes of evidence and appendix. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    F. Hawkins, Esq. M. D. July 1848. tion; and therefore the college is justified in not extending the act of grace so far as they would have it extended. 5746. Mr. IVakleij.'] You say you consider that all the colleges under the new Act relinquish the power of licensing ?—Strictly speaking they do so. 5747. And consequently you consider that the new college would be placed on the same footing in that respect as the other?—I think it would. 5748. But would you direct your attention for one moment to this circum- stance, that the council is to have the power of preventing any person from being registered, provided the council believes that the college has not complied with the regulations which the council has adopted, and that it is only in that case that the power of the council could be exercised in preventing registration ; is not that so ?—Yes ; but that power will extend alike to all the examining bodies, and does not affect the intended college of general practitioners more than the other colleges, except so far as the persons whom they examine are required by the public to be surgeons also, and therefore a more complicated arrangement is required for them ; but essentially, and strictly speaking, their power will not be less than that of the others. 5749. Upon reflection, you will observe all the colleges are to have the power of licensing, the council having the power only to prevent the parties licensed by the colleges from being registered ; supposing the regulations of the college should be violated in the case of the college of general practitioners, will the college have any power to license under any circumstances?—It is required for the protection of the public that all the persons to whom they grant testimonials should go forth to the public with the sanction of the body that examines in surgery, and which will be the best guarantee. I may say, that the general practitioners themselves think the sanction given by the College of Sur- geons is the best, and they desire to have it; and it is by their desire that the College of Surgeons is to examine them, and admit them as members ; and as it appears to me, the power of the new' college will be the same, essentially, as that of the others, except so far as it becomes complicated with those other con- ditions w'hich they require, and which the protection of the public requires. 5750. The individuals who undergo an examination at your college, and pos- sess your licence, will be entitled to practise?—Not unless they are registered. 5751. They will be entitled to practise consequently upon registration ?— Yes. 5752. But supposing an individual has undergone an examination before the college of general practitioners, what i's his position ?—It would be the same, but that his position requires that he should have the sanction of being a surgeon also. 5753. Consequently the college of general practitioners is to have no power to license in any department of the profession ; the only privilege that the individual will possess who has undergone his examination before the college of general practitioners will be that of going before the College of Surgeons for another examination?—My answrer to that would be taken from what I ventured to state at the beginning of my examination, that the good of the public required that an evil that had long existed should be put an end to, namely, that persons who had only been examined in surgery were notoriously practising in medicine, and per- sons only examined in medicine were necessarily acting as surgeons, and I think the complaint which is made with reference to the peculiar nature of this new incorporation arises from the nature of things. 5754. If it is to consist of persons who are qualified to practise in the three branches of the profession, was it stated at the conference why the objection existed to giving that college the same power to license in medicine, in surgery, and in midwifery, as the College of Surgeons themselves ?—The objection was this, that the persons who were to enter into that college do desire to possess the sanction which the existing College of Surgeons is alone enabled to grant. 5755. Why was not it left as a matter of choice, and a matter of discretion, whether they chose to go before the college or not ; by the outline of the Bill it is made compulsorv upon the individual, before he shall be enabled to practise in any department of the profession, that he shall be compelled to go before the college of general practitioners, and subsequently before the College of Sur- geons ?—Yes. 5756. Is not it really then the case, that the college of general practitioners is