MONTHLY UF.VJEW OL LITERATURE. 7{) 



and incompetent practitioners in their respective departments. By the Col- 

 lege of Physicians restricting its examinations to what is called ' pure physic/ 

 the public have no warrant that the physicians who obtain its license are fully 

 qualified to practise physic ; and by the College of Surgeons restricting its ex- 

 amination to ' pure surgery/ the public have no warrant that the surgeons 

 who receive its diploma are fully qualified to practise surgery for in practise 

 these artificial distinctions cannot exist. What renders the defective state of 

 the examinations at these Colleges the more glaring is that they will punish 

 by exclusion from all corporate offices and degradation of rank any of their 

 members that may go before a second board to remedy the omissions of the 

 first provided the additional testimonial is turned to any practical account. 



" Out of this branch system, the multiplication of Examining Boards has 

 arisen, which is of itself an evil of some magnitude, as it tends to destroy the 

 unity of medical science, and to harass and produce dissensions among its 

 members. For this reason the Board of Pharmacy should never have been 

 established, and even the creation of a Board of Surgery was injudicious. 



" Moreover, to guard against the defects in the examinations of the College 

 of Physicians and Surgeons, it has been considered necessary to constitute an 

 examining board in the Army and another in the Navy, which, if it be not 

 disgraceful to the medical corporations, is at least galling to those individuals 

 who are obliged to undergo examinations before several boards, when one 

 might be made more efficient than the whole. As an instance of the impro- 

 priety of having the medical corporations acting on inefficient and discordant 

 principles, it may be mentioned that an army order was issued in July, 1830, 

 which excludes from his Majesty's military service all pure physicians ; and 

 by the army regulations surgeons are required to stand an examination in phy- 

 sic before the army medical board. The army order which excludes pure 

 physicians runs thus : ' No medical candidate who has not passed his exa- 

 minations at the Royal College of Surgeons of London, Edinburgh, or Dublin, 

 shall be eligible for this commission.' Now, should a Fellow of the College 

 of Physicians, who considers himself in the very first grade of the profession, 

 apply for an appointment in the army, he is placed in this awkward dilemma, 

 that he cannot get into the army without becoming a surgeon ; and, should 

 he become a surgeon, he is liable to be turned out of the College of Physicians. 



" In addition to these various authorities, there are others in different parts 

 of the United Kingdom which assist in extending the confusion that pervades 

 the profession. Dublin has its Corporation of Physicians, its Corporation of 

 Surgeons, and its Corporation of Apothecaries, which are equally addicted to 

 the making of erroneous and oppressive bye-laws as their brethren in London, 

 and all have their peculiar modes and forms of examination. In Edinburgh, 

 also, there is a Corporation of Physicians and of Surgeons ; and, in Glasgow, 

 the University and the Incorporated Faculty exercise a somewhat analogous 

 power. In Scotland, however, there is no such body as apothecaries. 



" As these Corporations exist solely for their own benefit, they form so 

 many barriers that prevent medical talent from circulating as it ought in rea- 

 son to do throughout the three kingdoms. A medical man who has paid the 

 corporate fees, and passed the examinations in one capital, must pay the fees 

 again and pass a similar course of examination, should he remove to another 

 capital. Thus a surgeon who is a member of the corporation of surgeons in 

 London, should he remove to Dublin, is told that he is there practically no 

 surgeon, unless he pay the fees and become a member of the corporation of 

 surgeons in Dublin ; and an apothecary of Dublin, should he come to Lon- 

 don, is told that he is practically no apothecary here unless he pay the fees, 

 and become a licentiate of the corporation of apothecaries in London; and a 

 physician of the corporation of physicians in Edinburgh, should he remove to 

 London, is told that he is practically no physician in this locality, unless he 

 pay the fees and become a licentiate of the corporation of physicians in Lon- 

 don. These ' regulations/ albeit sufficiently ridiculous, are by no means mat- 

 ters of form they are enforced by legal penalties. 



