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
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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![M. D. 25 July 1848. is left entirely without the power of licensing?—According to my views, none of F. Haivlcins, Esq. those bodies have the power of licensing ; 1 do not admit that it belongs to any of them ; they are only to be considered as regards licensing, as preparatory bodies; and the new college of practitioners will be in that way one of the bodies engaged in preparing persons, but not preparing them completely, because the persons whom it has to prepare are to be surgeon-apothecaries or general practitioners. I merely contend that the question which is raised is one that arises entirely out of the complicated character of that branch of the profession. 5757. But under the proposed Act the College of Physicians will have the power of licensing physicians, and the College of Surgeons will have the power of licensing surgeons?—Yes, but only in the sense and to the extent which 1 have just stated. 5758. But who will the college of general practitioners have the power to license?—I have already said that I do not admit that any of them have, strictly speaking, the power of licensing ; they have to prepare in part, and only in part. I stated at the commencement of my examination Yhis day, that there were great difficulties attached to this part of the question ; it seems to me that the objection that has been urged is a mere seeming one, and not a real one. 57,59. You individually approve of the establishment of a college of general practitioners?—If we were building our house anew', instead of repairing the old one, the question might be differently answered. As I stated when the con- ference committee began their consideration of this matter, they had a choice of difficulties ; but it was strongly represented that the majority of the general prac- titioners of this country wished to have a college of their own, although at the same time they did wish that their members should have that sanction as to their competency in surgery, which the College of Surgeons is generally looked upon as being the best qualified to give. 5760. You know the arrangement proposed as to examinations at Edinburgh, that the general practitioners are to be examined by a joint Board, consisting of physicians and surgeons?—It may be a good plan, if the surgeon-apothecaries like the plan, but if they wish to have a college of their own, it does not appear to me that the other branches of the profession have any right to negative that. 5761. Chairman.'] And you say the College of Physicians are quite willing that the examinations in medicine should be delegated to that body themselves? —Yes, quite so. 5762. Leaving it to the College of Surgeons and that body to settle how far the College of Surgeons should or should not have the power of examination in surgery?—I should be glad to state the grounds on which the College of Phy- sicians assented to that arrangement. I would say this, that the College of Physicians assented to that arrangement not looking to any private interest, but looking to the general interest of the profession, for unless it had done so, it did not appear possible that any general arrangement of the profession could be made in this country. 5763. From whence did it appear to you that the impossibility arose ?— From the wish so long expressed by the general practitioners themselves, to regulate their own education to a certain extent. 5764. Mr. Wakley.] You are aware that the body who appeared before you as representatives from the Institute, only so appeared on behalf of about 1,000 members of the profession, not more than 600 of those being members of the College of Surgeons, there belonging to that college 1,200 members ?—The mem- bers ot the National Institute claimed to represent a much larger body than is now stated. 5765. In the first Bill ot Sir James Graham’s was not it proposed that the general practitioner should be examined by a joint Board consisting of physicians and apothecaries, and also of members of the College of Surgeons?—1 think not in the first Bill, the Bill of 1844, but in the Bill of 1845. 5766. You recollect that it w'as in one of the Bills ?—Yes. 5767. Was the College of Physicians consulted upon that subject before the proposal was introduced into the Bill ?—They were not formally consulted. 702. LIST](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24906803_0331.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
