ABUSES IN THE PUBLIC HOSPITALS. 507 



flock to Edinburgh, where this crime was first committed, drawn there 

 not more by its celebrity as a school of physic, than by the free range of 

 the hospitals afforded them, at the trifling charge of 5/ v whereas the 

 charge for the like attendance on the recognized hospitals in England is 

 at least ten times that sum ? Was not the demand for bodies for dissec- 

 tion rendered so great by this circumstance, that the supply afforded by 

 the natural deaths could not keep pace ? Hence arose the difficulty of 

 procuring them, and the enormous price given for them was the tempta- 

 tion which Burke and his associates could not withstand. Thus we see 

 the hospital monopoly in England and ef burking" are related to each 

 other, as cause and effect. The evil that has been done can only be 

 lamented, but let us learn wisdom from the past. 



It may now be inquired, by what method these gross abuses can be 

 remedied ? The answer is plain. Nothing will so effectually bring them 

 to light, as a full and complete inquiry, before a committee of the 

 Commons, into the whole system of medical education adopted in these 

 kingdoms. That such an investigation is urgently called for, no one 

 acquainted with the working of the present system can doubt ; and that 

 it will be attended with beneficial results, both to the profession and 

 the public, is equally certain. 



But here another obstacle presents itself. The faculty is wholly 

 unrepresented in either House of Parliament. Unlike the law, the 

 church, the army and navy, the manufacturing and agricultural inte- 

 rests, each of which have many able advocates, the members of the 

 medical profession are destitute of a single organ in that assembly, 

 through whom they may declare their wants or wishes. If the idea of 

 a medical man attempting to legislate for the law or the church be 

 absurd, not less ridiculous does it appear for a ship-broker or timber- 

 merchant to be meddling in medical legislation. In a word, the interests 

 of the whole profession, the advancement of general science, and the 

 safety of the community, imperiously require that the members of the 

 medical profession should no longer be unrepresented in the great council of 

 the nation. 



