Report from the Select Committee on Medical Registration : together with the minutes of evidence, appendix, and index.

  • Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Select Committee on Medical Registration.
Date:
[1847]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report from the Select Committee on Medical Registration : together with the minutes of evidence, appendix, and index. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    ])rofession, that the general tenour of ordinary medical practice is not pursued in the face of the profession ?—Certainly. 363. And, therefore, the same amount of test is not brought to hear upon a man till he rises to that pitch of the profession that he is obliged to practise in the face of his professional brethren ?—Certainly. 364. Would not that make a very great difference, with reference to some of the questions which the Honourable Chairman put to you r—Certainly. 365. Colonel Wood.'] In any legislation for medical reform ought not pro- vision to be made for the separation of the practice of pharmacy, and that of physic and surgery; that is, that general practitioners should not be allowed to charge for their medicines ?—It would be a very good plan to make a division. The person who prescribes should not be the person to furnish the medicines, certainly, in my opinion. 366. And that if he does furnish them, he should not be allowed to charge for them ?—Certainly ; there is no objection to his furnishing them if he is not to receive any emolument from’them. 307. Mr. F. French.] Is not the only remuneration received by the general practitioner, the price he gets for. his medicine, as he takes no fee ?—Many of them do. 368. And charge for medicine also ?—Some charge for medicine, and also take fees; others take fees, and do not charge for medicine. George Burrows, Esq., m.d., called in; and Examined. 369. Sir J. Graham.] YOU are the Senior Censor of the College of Physi- cians ?—I am. 370. Your attention has been directed to the several measures which have been brought before Parliament lately with reference to establishing equality of practice throughout the United Kingdom, on the assumption that equality of attainments can be secured ?—My attention has been directed upon various occasions to this subject. 371. Has your attention been directed to the last Bill brought before the House of Commons, “ for the registration of qualified practitioners, and for amending the law relating to the practice of medicine” throughout the United Kingdom ?—I have read the Bill with considerable attention. 371*. Have you formed such an opinion with respect to it as to be able to tell the Committee what, in your opinion, would be its bearing upon the dis- tinct classes into which the medical profession is now divided ; would it, if it became the law, enable the subdivision, in practice, between the physician, the surgeon, and the general practitioner, to be retained, or would it establish, in your opinion, one faculty ?—My opinion is, that the operation of the Bill, if it became the law, would be to disorganize the profession as it is now constituted, and that it would ultimately lead to the establishment of only one class of prac- titioners ; in fact, the establishment of what is popularly known in the profes- sion as the one-faculty system. 372. Will you point out to the Committee what are the provisions in this Bill which lead you to the opinion that it would have that effect ?—I would particularly call the attention of the Committee to clause 10, in conjunction with clause 31, which is the interpretation clause, and the terms made use of in the medical registration certificate in Schedule B. It is by the operation of those two clauses, in connexion with the language made use of in the medical registration certificate, that all medical practitioners would be placed in one list and be reduced to one class of faculty; and by the mode of registration, and by the language adopted in the medical certificate, all who are registered under this Act, whatever might be their respective literary, scientific, or practical qualifications, would obtain the same privileges, under this Bill, if it became the law, and have the same licence to practise, if they pleased, as physicians, as surgeons, or as apothecaries, or as physicians and surgeons, or as physicians and apothecaries, or as physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries, all at the same time ; and a person might pursue those three parts of our profession, and might, at the same time, be engaged as a chemist and druggist with an open shop ; and in this way he might be pursuing all the different branches of our profession conjointly, at the same time, in any part of the United Kingdom. I 0.138. D 4 maintain J. A. Paris, Esq. M. D. 4 June 1847. G. Bvrro'xs, Esq. W. J).
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