The political powerlessness of the medical profession : its causes and its remedies / by Balthazar Foster.

  • Foster, Balthazar W. (Balthazar Walter), Sir, 1840-1913.
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The political powerlessness of the medical profession : its causes and its remedies / by Balthazar Foster. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    19/22 page 17
    House we are not much better off: there every class finds more numerous and more powerful advocates. At the last General Election, while Lawyers stood by scores, not a single medical Practitioner went to the poll in the whole of England. In other nations this is not so. In Germany the world-renowned pathologist Virchow was the leader, of a powerful party in the Prussian and German Chambers. Among the Deputies of France, one of the most powerful leaders and the probable successor of Gambetta is a doctor ; and till recently a distinguished physiologist held a ministerial portfolio. In Italy the same conditions hold good, and at the last elections seventeen medical men were elected by the people for Parliamentary work. In the Assemblies that govern English speaking nations elsewhere, in those Colonies of which we are so justly proud, we find a medical element strong in the legislature. These facts are sufficient to show, that there is no valid reason against our seeking a just share in the government of our country. The Press, that mirror of the people’s thoughts, has always been favourable to our claims. The demand for sanitary and scientific legislation is on the increase; the work is indeed plentiful, but the labourers are few. It is our apathy and our want of courage in the past that has placed us in the position in which we now are, and I look to the rising generation of the profession to enter on a new and nobler course. With the spread of education among the people there must be a progressive political development, and a steady transfer of more and more power to the great masses of the population. As they gain knowledge and influence, the great questions that affect their health, their happiness, and their lives, must come more and more to the front. We as a profession know the woes and the wants, the sufferings and the sorrows of the people more
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