XIII STATE AND THE MEDICAL PROFESSION 331 



b}' the State as medical j)ractitioners are entered; 

 and the other was the establishment of the 

 Medical Council, which is a kind of Medical 

 Parliament, composed of representatives of the 

 licensing bodies and of leading men in the medical 

 profession nominated by the Crown. The powers 

 given by the Legislature to the ]\Iedical Council 

 were found practically to be very limited, but I 

 think that no fair observer of the work will doubt 

 that this much attacked body has excited no small 

 influence in bringing about the great change for 

 the better, which has been effected in the train- 

 ing of men for the medical profession within my 

 recollection. 



Another source of improvement must be recog- 

 nised in the Scottish Universities, and especially 

 in the medical facultv of the Universitv of Edin- 

 burgh. The medical education and examinations 

 of this body were for many years the best of their 

 kind in these islands, and I doubt if, at the pres- 

 ent moment, the three kingdoms can show a bet- 

 ter school of medicine than that of Edinburgh. 

 The vast number of medical students at that Uni- 

 versity is sufficient evidence of the opinion of 

 those most interested in this subject. 



Owing to all these influences, and to the revo- 

 lution which has taken place in the course of the 

 last twenty years in our conceptions of the proper 

 method of teaching physical science, the training 

 of tlie medical student in a good school, and the 



