NOTES 519 



at the Annual Meeting of Fellows and Members to issue a 

 balance-sheet, but they refused to do so. 



At the Annual Meeting for the past thirty years the Members 

 (supported by many of the Fellows present) have made a pro- 

 test against the withholding from them of their ancient rights 

 and privileges, and resolutions to this effect have been carried 

 by large majorities, and often without a single vote recorded 

 in opposition ;:for the Council sits dumb and inarticulate. On at 

 least two occasions within recent years, a requisition prepared 

 in accordance with the regulations of the College, has been 

 presented requesting the convening of a statutory meeting of the 

 Fellows and Members, but the Council has refused the request. 



We say that the Council does not in any way represent the 

 Members, but it ventures to speak and write in their name, 

 although the Members have not been consulted either in general 

 meeting, or by circular letter. The Council is not elected 

 by the Members. It takes absolutely no interest in them indi- 

 vidually, or collectively, unless it sees a chance of inflicting 

 a penalty on some unfortunate Member under its byelaws. 

 The Council treats with contempt the resolutions passed at the 

 Annual Meeting of Fellows and Members. It does not protect 

 our interests against quacks and impostors. During the crisis 

 produced by the National Insurance Act of 191 1 the Council 

 took no effective action and summoned no meeting to consider 

 the position of the Members or Fellows in general practice. It 

 spends its income, mainly derived from us, in extravagance and 

 without reference to our wishes or opinions, e.g. the Council 

 spends over £100 yearly in providing a dinner for its friends, 

 yet every medical charity is overwhelmed with applications for 

 assistance from Members or their widows and children, who 

 have been (through no fault of their own) brought to penury 

 and even forced within the walls of the workhouse. Such is the 

 Council's extravagance, that, if it were not for the large bequest 

 of Sir Erasmus Wilson, the College would have been long since 

 broken and bankrupt ! 



If Members were represented on the Council, we contend that 

 the affairs of the College would be placed on a better and 

 more economical basis ; that more money would be spent in 

 philanthropy and less on mere display and dissipation, and that 

 the Members would change their present disgust and apathy for 

 an affectionate interest and pride in a College which took a 



