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Memorial from ShrewsburyAuthor(s): Henry JohnsonSource: Provincial Medical and Surgical Journal (1844-1852), Vol. 9, No. 18 (Apr. 30, 1845), pp.283-284Published by: BMJStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25498566 .

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SHREWSBURY MEMORIAL. 283 of the faculty of medicine is objectionable, both on account of there being no apparent necessity tojustify such a measure, and because it will tend to complicate the relations of the medical profession.

That your Memorialists are of opinion, that the

power granted to the Council of Health by clause 28th of the bill, of making regulations for specifying what form of testimonial shall be necessary to qualify the holder for appointment to public institutions may become liable to abuse; and they therefore consider, that a matter so deeply affecting the interests of the

profession, should be fixed by statute, or left, as at

present, to the decision of parties supporting such

institutions. That by clause 19th of the bill, " every person regis

tered as physician or surgeon under this act shall be

admitted as an associate of the Royal College of

Physicians or as a fellow of the Royal College of

Surgeons, from which he shall have received his letters

testimonial as physician or surgeon," while the act

makes no provision for the admission of persons at

present practising as physicians and surgeons to the

same privileges. Your Memorialists consider this a

serious omission in the bill, inasmuch as persons

engaged in active practice have not the opportunity of

obtaining these privileges, and must necessarily, and without any fault of their own, be placed at a disad.

vantage, by others entering the profession subsequently to the passing of this act. That the holders of surgical diplomas have especial cause of complaint, inasmuch as on obtaining such diplomas, they were admitted to the

highest position in their profession to which they could then attain, while the present measure provides for the advancement of all future surgeons at once to the rank of fellows, and by so doing, places them in -

higher position than their seniors in the profession, and that without any superior merit, to entitle them to such advancement.

That, in the opinion of your Memorialists, the chief sources of difficulty in a legistative adjustment of the rights and privileges of the medical profession will be

experienced when the present measure, in its opera tion, comes in contact with the privileges of chartered bodies. That while your Memorialists consider all chartered rights as entitled to respect, they would

earnestly impress on your consideration, whether the influence of her Majesty's government might not be

employed in so regulating those rights, as to prevent the raising of invidious distinctions within the medical

profession. That your Memorialists consider such

distinctions, as at present bestowed, of no public advan

tage, while they tend to disunite the profession; and

unless administered in a more satisfactory manner than

heretofore, they may go far to neutralize many of the beneficial effects which might otherwise follow from the present bill.

[We regret that we are unable to find room for the

account of the proceedings of the meeting, with which

we have been favoured by Mr. G. M. Davis, at which

the foregoing resolutions and memorial were adopted.j

MEMORIAL FROM SHREWSBURY. At a meeting of the medical profession of Shrop

shire and North Wales, held at the Lion Hotel,

Shrewsbury, April 3, 1845, Henry Johnson, Esq., M.D., in the chair, the following memorial to Sir James Graham was unanimously adopted:

To the Right Hon. Sir James Graham, Bart., her

Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home

Department. Your Memorialists desire respectfully to express to

you their gratitude for the attention you have been

pleased to pay to the important subject of Medical Reform. They hail with satisfaction the statement of

your earnest desire to see one admission to practice,

by an examination common to all, which will have the

effect both of advancing the science of medicine and

surgery, and of elevating the position of medical prac

titioners, by requiring from all who enter the profes sion the same course of study, and the same extent of

scientific attainments.

Your Memorialists respectfully suggest that this

common examination in medicine, surgery, and mid

wifery, shall not take place till the candidate shall have

attained the age of 25 years, as they consider that the

rapid advances which have been made of late years in

medicine and surgery, as well as the collateral sciences,

render an extended course of study absolutely

necessary. Your Memorialists earnestly desire, that in the con

stitution of the Council of Health and Education, due

regard be had to the proper representation of the

interests of that important and influential class of the

profession, denominated general practitioners. Your Memorialists cannot but regret, that even in

the amended bill, as now before Parliament, a very inefficient protection is given both to the public and

the profession against the evils of empiricism, inasmuch

as legal proceedings under the present Apothecaries'Act are inoperative, being rarely resorted to on account of

'the great expense attending them, and the uncertainty of the decisions; and the funds arising from the

examination of candidates for their licence being in

future withdrawn, the company will neither have the

means nor any interest in prosecuting. Your Memo

rialists, therefore, humbly hope that a summary

jurisdiction will be granted to the local Magistrates to

inflict a penalty, not only on those who assume the

titles, but on those also who illegally exercise the

functions of medical and surgical practitioners. Your

Memorialists consider, that having, as members of the

College of Surgeons, pursued the same course of study,

undergone the same examination, and paid the same

fees for their diplomas, they are clearly entitled to a

community of privileges. They, therefore, urgently

request that you will be pleased to make such altera

tions in the charter recently granted to the Royal

College of Surgeons in London, as will extend the

fellowship, after a certain period, to all those who

were members of the College at the time the said

Charter was granted. In accordance with your sug

gestion your Memorialists also consider it of importance,

for the preservation of uniformity in the profession, and the prevention of -a unnecessary number of cor

porate institutions, nhat the general practitioners of

the kingdom, who form the mai body of the profession, should be enfranchised in the present College of

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-284 DEPUTATION TO THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS.

Surgeons. They feel confident that the justice of the above request will be equally recognized by

yourself, as it is keenly felt by the numerous mem

bers who have been so unfairly excluded from the

fellowship. Your Memorialists feel grateful for the opportuni

ties you have afforded to the profession for discussing the several provisions of your intended bill, by post poning the second reading till after the Easter recess; -also for the courteous manner in which you have

listened to the suggestions of the different medical

societies, the result of which, they confidently hope, will be the production of such a measure as will give satisfaction to all classes of the profession, and lead to

that harmony which is so desirable and so anxiously -sought for.

Signed, on behalf of the meeting. HENRY JOHNSON, M.D.,

Chairman.

The resolutions on which the Memorial was founded were moved and seconded by Messrs. P. Cartwright and J. N. Heathcote, Dr. J. M. Coley, Bridgnorth;

Messrs. W. Eddowes, S. Wood, W. Brookes, C. T. H. Clarke, W. J. Clement, C. Edwards, and H. Keate,

ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS: MEMO

RIAL FROM NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE.

To the Right Honourable Sir James Graham, Bart., Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department.

The Memorial of the Physicians practising in Newcastle

upon-Tyne and its Neighbourhood.

Your Memorialists have heard with alarm and deep regret, that by the new Charter about to be granted to the College of Physicians, it is proposed to restrict the number of the Fellows of that College to a body of about 200 individuals; and your Memorialists have reason to fear, that the Charter in such case will tend

only to perpetuate those exclusive privileges, which

tave ever formed the chief subject of complaint against the College of Physicians of London ; and your Memo rialists do most earnestly pray, that the bill for the

granting of the said Charter, now before the Honour

able the Commons House of Parliament, may not pass into a law until the Charter itself shall have been laid before that House, and that the clause thus limiting the Fellowship, may be excluded from the bill, and

provision made therein, that every legally educated and qualified physician practising in England,

may be entitled to the honours and privileges of the

fellowship. J. Cargill, M.D.; J. M. Bates, M.D.; J. Brown, M.D.;

0- Fife, M.D.; J. Bowman, M.D.; J. Burn, M.D.; D. B; White, M.D.; D. Bulman, M.D.; D. Embleton, M.D.; F. De Mey, M.D.; T. E. Headlam, M.D.; E.

'ehartton, M.D.; R. M. Glover, M.D.; S. Knott, - M.D.

ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS.

REFUSAL OF THE COUNCIL TO RECEIVE A DEPU

TATION OF MEMBERS OF THE COLLEGE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE PROVINCIAL MEDICAL AND

SURGICAL JOURNAL.

SIR, I have sent you herewith, a copy of a correspondence

which I have recently held with the President and

Council of the Royal College of Surgeons of England,

regarding the late innovations upon its constitution, and I request the favour of your inserting it in the

columns of your influential journal.

You will perceive that the object of the gentlemen whom I represented on this occasion, was to obviate

the necessity of a separation from the College of

Surgeons, by procuring a relaxation of their present stringent monopoly.

It appears that the President and Council will not

yield an iota of their exclusive privileges. They pro fess to believe that the only end and scope of the

College is to promote the cultivation of pure surgery, and not to diffuse a high standard of professional

knowledge amongst a numerous body of general prac titioners.

On the contrary, we being convinced that the

College has always been ineffective in the promotion of operative surgery, which owes its birth and growth

solely to private enterprise; and that its utility is

necessarily confined to the cultivation of the sciences, which form the basis of the several acts of the surgeon, obstetrician, and physician, have arrived at the deter

mination of using our utmost efforts to promote the

establishment of a new College, ter centum juravimus, which should promote the ends neglected by the

existing corporations. We acknowledge that the union of four thousand

practitioners, in a demand for a charter of incorpora tion for those who practice medicine, surgery, and

midwifery, is a combination too potent for the Secretary of State to resist, and the views of this powerful Association would command our unanimous sympathy, if the Committee, more perfectly representing than they do at present the wishes of their constituents, would

not confine the Charer to general practitioners alone, nor carry on their deliberations in secret.

The objects of the professional movement are per

fectly fair and open, medical interests are only urged so far as they are identical with the interests of the

public; where then is the need of secret conclaves and

clandestine interviews ?

We fear that the limitation of the charter to the

practitioner, who should include in his avocations the

functions of the physician, surgeon, and obstetrician, to the exclusion of him who undertakes one of the

divisions separately, must prove fatal to the scientific

reputation of the new college, and render it subject to

some of the objections urged against the system of the

present colleges. We think that the new institution can only succeed

in becoming a powerful and useful rival to the esta

blished corporations, by including in its precincts all

denominations of practitioners; and proving by its

successful career, that professors of special branches of

the healing art may be as well trained in a general

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