To Correspondents. Will Receive a Certificate of Being Registered, Which Certificate Will Entitle Him to All the Privileges Conferred by the Act
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A . Subscriber, (Camberwell.)-1. No time is fixed fur the publication of the first Register. It will be in the form of a book, and may be purchased.-. He To Correspondents. will receive a certificate of being registered, which certificate will entitle him to all the privileges conferred by the Act. IT would greatly facilitate our labours if gentlemen, who kindly forward to us Mr. M. G. Evans.-No prosecutor has been appointed under the Act. Any could the information. newspapers or other periodicals, would be good enough to mark the articles person lay 3fr. Fredervek Collins.-Inquiry should be made into the subject. to which they wish to direct our attention. Brevity and condensation in R. W.-1. There is no direct statute to prevent it.-2. Not of surgeon.-3. It communications forwarded for publication are especial recommendations to might admit of question. our favour. It is, moreover, desirable that our correspondents should assume C. W. S.-It will depend upon the bye-laws of the Club. definite and easily-recognisable signatures. We have occasionally on our THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS. table at the same time half a dozen letters, each signed "A Surgeon;" the To the Editor of THE LANCET. *’ Subscribers" are too numerous to mention; whilst those who merely attach SIR,-Since the Medical Act has passed, the members of the various univer- " N.D." or "M.R.C.S." to their communications are legion. It would remove sities and other public medical colleges and institutions naturally look forward to progressive improvements in the constitution of those establishments, either much and confusion if some more distinct and less common difficulty signa- in the amendment of some of their laws or rules, or in some organic change of tures were to be adopted. their charters. I desire on the present occasion to bring forward a few suggestions for the THE LONDON MEDICAL REGISTRATION ASSOCIATION. consideration of the London Royal College of Physicians, in the hope that they WE have been requested by the Honorary Secretary of the London Medical may be pleased to modify or eradicate those laws or rules which are obnoxious to the welfare of its members. The with Association to state that, on medical practi- College has, enlightened liberality, Registration legally-qualified opened its portals to Scotch and Irish doctols of medicine, and made them tioners members of that on the becoming body, they may, furnishing proper licentiates and fellows of their own body. It has given equal advantages and information to the Secretary, together with the amount of the registration position to them as to graduates of Oxford and Cambridge. The College has fee, secure the services of himself to effect their due registration. Such gen- opened its doors to practitioners in the country, as well as to those who have obtained But there are anomalies in the distinctions and tlemen are also the to furnish him with the names foreign degrees. requested by Secretary honours of the at variance with the of and both of the of the College quite spirit progress, repug- legally-qualifiedand (in a aeparate list) unqualified persons nant to justice, and which certainly demand alteration. It would be well if a practising medicine and surgery in their respective neighbourhoods, so that, gentleman of ability in the Council or amongst the fellows would bring all on the information thereby furnished being afforded by him to the Registrar inequalities or complaints of members fairly before the College or before the new Medical Council. under the Act, that officer may be enabled to render the registration as com- I will first of all refer to the mode of electing licentiates into the higher plete and accurate as possible. grade of the fellowship. While I admit that the selection is often judicious, A Brig7tton Subseriber.-1. He can only register his qualifications.-2. There yet there seems no fixed rule nor governing principle publicly known in making the There seems no nor obvious reason for the selection of is no at for such a selection. special arrangement present supply. fellows over several of modest whose unobtrusive at- is not known. many gentlemen merit, Tyro.-It tainments would equally entitle them to the distinction of fellows. A reco- Nemo.-Yes, he might be compelled to do so; but surely no other practitioner, gnised path to the honours of a fellowship, patent to all who aspire to them, under such circumstances, would make a charge. should be clearly chalked out to those ambitious to walk therein. Several of the licentiates who have been made fellows are no means in Mr. J. Johnson.-No charge can be made by a public vaccinator for re-vaccina- by superior age, or to those who have been over in the list of the tion experience, abiiity passed licentiates. What constitutes superiority? or what gives a claim to the higher THE MEDICAL ACT. title uf fellow? Some of these more favoured gentlemen have not written To the Editor of THE LANCET. original or valuable works on Medicine, nor axe they known to have enjoyed SIR,-The Medical Act is a theme upon which every lover of his profession great public repute for enlarged experience, nor to have made scientific investi- must delight to dwell. Its importance and many of its bearings upon the gations, nor to have been successful teachers. Some may lay claim to the privi- future have already been pointed out in various ways in THE LANCET. It cer- lege in consequence of writing a work; but this is a very fallacious test of supe- tainly forms a new era in the history of our profession. It not only recognises riority, for it is well known that many of the ablest physicians have never pub- us as a distinct body professional, but it also grants us the full liberty of lished a work, nor given their lueubrations to the world. I believe that the governing ourselves. In what other country do we find the medical profession late Dr. Chambers, whose knowledge and experience were undoubted, ne’VH stand upon so proud a footing ? We are not placed, by the Act, under the published a single volume; the same niiht be said of others, whose time domination of Government, as the profession is in most, if not all, European was absorbed in the practice of their profession, and who never enjoyed learned countries; but, as may be said, "we have the law in our own hands," and it is leisure. By what test or clear principle, then, are licentiates entitled to the to be hoped that we shall not make a bad use of it. higher grade of the fellowship ? At present it seems an uncertain and arbitrary " In the days of the Institute" the cry was for a. law to enable the profession mode of selection. "to govern itself." We are now possessed of such a law. We have a Council I will now refer to the different titles of licentiates and extra-licentiates,-a consisting wholly of medical men, and its acts up to the present time have distinction at once unreasonable and antiqnated,-founded on the idea that the been such as to deserve approbation. It has done much in a short time. Its lives of people were more precious within ten miles of London than of those appointment of the Registrar was of no small importance, and in discharging beyond that pale or sacred precinct, and therefore that less medical skill was that duty it, I may assume, could not have selected a more befitting person, sufficient for the rural plebeians. I think that the extra-licentiates have just one at whom the finger of disapprobation cannot be pointed, inasmuch as he is ground of complaint of an invidious distinction and presumed inferiority, be- an experienced Medical Registrar, and one of the most respected members of cause they live at Manchester, Leamington, Bath, or Cheltenham. When the the most ancient Medical College in the kingdom. railroads have removed men of wealth further in the country, and the nobility But, Sir, there are many things, which have not yet been brought into notice, and gentry of the kingdom live half of their time in the provinces, and require- that suggest themselves in connexion with the Medical Act. I have already just as much professional lore and experience as when they reside in London, noticed that the new Act biuds us together into a body professional. Ought it it is but just to place the whole profession on an equal basis in rank, honour, not also be made the instrument for forming us into a body political? Will and dignity, and not to make distinctions upon the absurd ground of distance, not the Medical Register furnish a perfect machinery fur enabling us to return of examinations, or fees. Let there be but one fee and one just and rigid exa- members to represent us in Parliament ? mination for all, and bring the members into harmony by equal rights, titles, I believe it has been acknowledged on all hands that, as a principle, educa- and honours. I trust that the College will abolish this useless distinction, and tion and intelligence ought to be represented. The difficulty hitherto has been, give the provincial physicians the same advuntages as those who reside in the absence of any legal bonds of union amongst a sufficient number of that London. class of the community, with the exception of the two ancient universities in Another anomaly, to which I beg to draw your attention, is, that while -the England, and their sister in Ireland.