First and second reports 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: First and second reports 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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    133. Chairman.'] You would admit them without examination ?—If they had been examined and approved in their own country. 134. Mr. Grogan.) You are aware that this Committee is appointed with a view to medical registration, to see if any thing can be suggested on that subject which would be beneficial to the public ; have you any suggestion on the subject to offer to the Committee ?—There is medical registration existing at the present moment; and all that is wanting is, that it should be authorized by law ; it only wants the power of an Act of Parliament to enforce the regis- tration ; you may have from the colleges at present existing as perfect a regis- tration as can be required. If by an Act of Parliament it were ordained, that no man should be allowed to practise, that is, that he should not be considered as a practitioner entitled to hold any public office, or be paid for his services, unless he were enrolled by the respective colleges, there would be no difficulty in it. 135. There is the general practitioner, but you disown him ?—No, he is a surgeon now ; he is going to make himself a general practitioner. I have no objection to that being so, if they will state what they are general practitioners of or in ; but they are going to be general practitioners in nothing ; the greater number, however, will register themselves if they are allowed so to do, as Members of the College of Surgeons ; and the term “ general practitioners” should indicate a person qualified to practise in physic, midwifery and pharmacy, who is also a surgeon. 136. Is not that the difficulty which renders it not quite easy to effect a legal registration now ?—What I should do would be this ; I would have an Act of Parliament, authorizing the College of Physicians in England to register their own body and sell it for fourpence. I would authorize the College of Surgeons to make a register of their own body and sell it for fourpence; I would autho- rize the Society of Apothecaries to register their own body and sell it for four- pence ; that would be one shilling for the three. If the three were not supposed to be sufficient, 1 would direct that the secretary of the College of Surgeons and the secetrary of the Society of Apothecaries should make one register of the surgeons who are also general practitioners ; I offered, when President, to do it for the whole of them, and I was prevented, because it was said I should show them up to the apothecaries to be prosecuted if they had not their license. My principal objection to Mr. Wakley’s Bill is, that it causes an expense to the public ; it establishes the office of a registrar, and it taxes the profession to pay for it. 137. Would any idea of this kind meet your views ; there is a University established in this city ; supposing there were a medical council or body added to that University, named by the authority and made a part of that University, composed of the three different branches of which you have spoken, and that they should respectively examine, one into pure physic, the other into pure surgery; and if a gentleman chose to go in for both combined, he should be able to obtain a diploma, and also in pharmacy and midwifery ; what objection would you see to a registration based upon that foundation ?—That is merely an alteration of the constituted order of things. It is a simple question whether that would be better than the other ; I see no objection to it, if it is worth while making a change, it might be as good as any other; hut I see no reason for doing it. 138. Sir R. H. Inglis.) In fact, it would be reducing all the grades of the profession to what in popular language is called one faculty ?—I am afraid I am misunderstood; I mean that there being a register of all, they should be kept distinct as to their being physicians or surgeons, or surgeon-apothecaries. Every man who wants to look in the register will know which he is looking for, and he will be able to see whether a man is a physician or a surgeon, or a surgeon-apothecary, or general practitioner, the more fashionable term. 139. You wish the Committee to understand that your opinion is, that the examination before the central board should be conducted locally, indeed, in one place, but practically by different individuals, according to the branch of the profession which each might respectively desire to practise? — I do not think 1 have so expressed myself; I have a great objection to centralization generally. I would not wish to have a central board if I could help it, cer- tainly not a central council. I would have candidates examined by their respective bodies; let the physicians examine the physicians, the surgeons the surgeons, and the apothecaries the apothecaries. 210. c 3 G. J. Guthrie, Esq. F. R. S. 29 February 1848. 140. Mr.
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