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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    13. The mode of election which you are now speaking of was prescribed by the charter of 1745, was it?—Yes. 14. Was that mode of election altered till the last charter was obtained r— No; I am about to speak of the last time the Council met to elect a person previously to the new charter. 15. Do you mean the charter of 1843 ?—Just previously to the grant of the charter of September 1843. 16. You have told the Committee that the mode of election continued the same from the date of the Act of 1745 to the charter of 1842 ?—Yes. 17. The case you are now speaking of to the Committee was a case that occurred just before the charter of 1842 came into operation ?—Yes, about the last meeting of the Council previously to that occasion, two officers of the public service were placed upon the list of six ; and another meeting of the Council was called, that we might have the names before us, when again the whole chorological list was called over; and any Councillor could propose anybody that he liked, even at the second meeting, and the gentleman was ballotted for, after every observation had been made, presumed to be necessary to show his merits or demerits. On that occasion Mr. Keate and myself withdrew the two gentlemen whom we had proposed, simply because they had passed 70 years of age ; they were therefore past the period at which one would wish them to become Councillors; we only put them forward to maintain the right; there has never been an officer of the navy upon the Council, and there have not been many of the officers of the army. Mr. Ranby was tiie first President, as we may call him, really belonging to the officers of the public service who had actually served before the enemy in a prominent office ; I am the second, and there never will be another from the public service of the country, if the present regulations are allowed to remain. 18. Are the Committee to understand from your statement that you hold that every medical officer of the army and navy ought to have a right to be elected into the Council of the College, simply in respect of his commission as a medical officer of the army?—Yes, and his diploma in the College, not practising as an apothecary, and living within five miles of the post office. 19. His diploma from the College, and his commission in the army ?—His diploma from the College gave him the right, which his commission as an officer did not invalidate ; 1 myself came under that regulation. 20. Mr. Lascelles.'] Is it by the provisions of the charter that they are now excluded, or by a bye-law under that charter?—I am about to inform the Com- mittee, when the charter was to be given, Sir James Graham was pleased to declare that 300 fellows only should be elected or chosen; the whole body having an equal right with these 300; the only bar being that which I have mentioned, that those who practised as apothecaries had lost their right to take a seat upon the Council; but all officers of the public service, not having this bar against them, were entitled to be included in the list of fellows. Previously to the President and myself seeing Lord Normanby and Mr. Fox Maule in February 1841, the Council had decided on the 23d December 1840 on proposing to the Government a class of Fellows and Electors of the Council, “that the class of Fellows of this College should consist of the members of the existing Council, and of those who shall have passed the proposed second examination, and who do not practise pharmacy, together with all who now are surgeons or assistant surgeons to the several hospitals recognized by this College, all lecturers on anatomy or surgery recognized by this College, and all who have been surgeons to such hospitals ; the said several persons being members of the College.” When the persons thus alluded to were found insufficient to make up the 300, it was thought right to add those who, although eligible for the Council, had been passed by and not elected, as well as others residing in London, who were juniors not practising pharmacy, and some few others who might have a certain degree of note in the country at large. Under those cir- cumstances, being then the President of the College of Surgeons, who always has a certain degree of authority, (though it is an authority which is quite conventional), I said, “ You cannot think of leaving the officers of the public service out, for although you are not troubled with many of them, they will be exceedingly indignant if they are not allowed to have the same rank as they had before; therefore you ought at least to take the senior officers belonging to the three branches of the service, and probably they may be 21 A3 satisfied G. J. Guthrie, Esq. F. R. S.