OPERATION OF MONOPOLIES. 609 



risk of prosecution and fine, afford them the benefit of his valuable 

 experience. Even the Fellows are visited with the severest mark of 

 collegiate displeasure, should they meet in consultation an unlicensed 

 physician, whom they denominate by the barbarous epithet of an 

 alienus homo ! And what return does the College make for the privi- 

 leges which it enjoys ? Alas ! there is not one redeeming virtue to be 

 found. Not a single branch of the profession is taught here ex cathedra. 

 No lectures upon Anatomy, Physiology, Chemistry, Materia Medica, 

 Practice of Physic, &c. There are about fifteen orations delivered in 

 the course of the year, but of their tone, temper, or importance to 

 society or the literary world, a few brief quotations will suffice. The 

 Harveian Oration, which should embrace the wide field of literature 

 and science, is made the vehicle of rancour and animosity against all 

 physicians who presume to practise in London without soliciting a 

 licence from the College, through the degrading ordeal of an exami- 

 nation by their inferiors. On one of these occasions Dr. Pemberton 

 uttered the following philippic against men with whom he would 

 have fraternized under the seal of an examination : " Quis vestrum 

 ignorat, alienum hominurn concessum habitum esse, novis conciliis, 

 nova audacia erectum, ad reformandum ut aiunt, sed potius ad ever- 

 tendum earn medicam disciplinam'quae in hac nostra domo per tria 

 seculcK feliciter constituta est, immo eo processit hcecce rerum nova- 

 rum cupiditas, ut consulerunt de petitione Senatui referenda ad in 

 ceptum suum lege sanciendum. In tuli casu ubi is vestrum qui non 

 ad arma currat ? quis non clamat stet fortuna domus." Upon another 

 anniversary of this oration, Dr. Powell applies the following expres- 

 sions to the same body of men : " Immi subsellii viri et criminum 

 graviorum vix insontes, certamen auda cissimum et turpissimum, ve- 

 lut agmine instructi movirunt." In 1794, when the licentiates de- 

 manded admission into the fellowship, Dr. Latham dared apply to 

 them the following epithets : " We are attacked by ferocious, daring, 

 and obstinate enemies, regardless of the faith which they have pledged 

 for the observance of our statutes." Thus it is, that men clothed in i a 

 chartered panoply, would narrow the operation of talents which were 

 intended for mankind. There is, in the organization of this College, 

 something so directly opposed to sense and reason, that, to be cor- 

 rected, it only requires to be generally known. To refuse the right of 

 practice to men who may have graduated with honour in some of the 

 first universities of the world, and to grant it to men who have never 

 graduated in any university, and upon whom this College cannot 

 confer a degree, is the climax of corporate jobbing. Yet such is the 

 fact : Not long ago this College admitted to practice ten men who 

 had never graduated in any university, whilst they, at the same time, 

 were persecuting some of the first physicians of the day. 



Let us hope, however, that it will not be long ere talent will be 

 freed from Tory trammels, fit only for an ignorant and barbarous 

 age, and that medicine, of all commodities, may not long be admi- 

 nistered through the medium of party prejudice. 



M.M. No. 96. 4 I 



