3a4:^TATE AND THE MEDICAL rUUEESfelUN xiii 



famous surgeon Avas asked wliether he meant to 

 bring up his son to his own calling, " Xo/' he 

 said, " he is sucli a fool, I mean to make a physi- 

 cian of him." 



Nowadays, it is happily recognised that medi- 

 cine is one and indivisible, and that no one can 

 properly practise one branch who is not familiar 

 with at any rate the principles of all. Thus the 

 two great things that are wanted now are, in the 

 first place, some means of enforcing such a degree 

 of uniformity upon all the examining bodies that 

 none should present a disgracefully low minimum 

 or pass examination; and the second point is that 

 some body or other shall have the power of en- 

 forcing upon every candidate for the licence to 

 practise the study of the three branches, what 

 is called the tripartite qualification. All the mem- 

 bers of the late commission were agreed that these 

 were the main points to be attended to in any 

 proposals for the further improvement of medical 

 training and qualification. 



But such being the ends in view, our notions 

 as to the best way of attaining them were singu- 

 larly divergent; so that it came about that eleven 

 commissioners made seven reports. There was 

 one main majority report and six minor reports, 

 which differed more or less from it, chiefly as to 

 the best method of attaining these two objects. 



Tlie majority report recommended the adop- 

 tion of what is known as the conjoint scheme. 



