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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    ( ' ) MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. Martis, 9° die Mail, 1848. MEMBERS PRESENT. Sir Henry Halford. Sir Thomas Birch. Mr. Hamilton. Mr. Wakley. The LORD ADVOCATE, in the Chair. Robert Christison, Esq., m.d.; Examined. Sir K. H. lnglis. Mr. Walter. Colonel Mure. 1438. Chairman.] YOU are a physician in Edinburgh?—I am. 1439. And a member of the Royal College of Physicians there ?—I am a Fellow and President of the College. 1440. You have a chair also in the University of Edinburgh?—I am Pro- fessor of Materia Medica in the University of Edinburgh. 1441. You attend the Committee, we understand, in consequence of the desire of the Committee to have somebody here from the University of Edin- burgh ?—I do. 1442. And you are more particularly charged with the interests of the Univer- sity upon this occasion ?—I am. 1443. The other gentlemen of the deputation being charged with the interests respectively of the College of Physicians and the College of Surgeons of Edin- burgh ?—They are. 1444. Have you had your attention turned to the attempts that have been lately made for the purpose of establishing a general system for the regulation of medical practice both in the United Kingdom and in Ireland?—Yes. 1445. Are you aware of the organization of the medical profession in England, that it is divided into physicians practising simply as physicians, surgeons practising simply as surgeons, and apothecaries or general practitioners prac- tising not exactly as physicians or surgeons, but in all the branches of the pro- fession?—Yes. R. Christison, Esq., M.D. 9 May 1848. 144G. Will you be kind enough to explain to the Committee whether there is any similar division of the profession in Scotland, or how, with reference to practice and the regulation of practice, the profession is divided, and what is its organization?—The system is analogous, though not identical with the English; there are physicians who practise precisely as physicians in London do, and there have been surgeons who practised precisely as surgeons in London; at the present moment, 1 doubt whether there is any one who practises only as the London surgeons do. 1447. There are those who practise as London physicians do ?—There are ; hut I do not believe that there is any one in 8cotland who practises precisely as the London physician or London surgeon does, except in Edinburgh. 1448. What is the practice of the surgeons ?— The practice of the greater part of the surgeons in Edinburgh who are Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons, is general practice, but with this difference compared with general practitioners in England, that in Edinburgh only one or two now dispense, that is to say, they do not give medicines from a surgery or shop of their own, but their patients go to a chemist and druggist, in the same way as in the case of physicians, with a recipe. 702. a 1449- D°