PRACTICE OF VETERINARY SURGERY 45 



regard to human treatment, tlie legal right of the 

 state is the same in veterinary regulation.^ 



The first case which I have found in which the 

 right to regulate the practice of medicine was 

 made distinct from the holding of a medical degree 

 was the famous Bonham case during the reign of 

 James I of England. Bonham had been gradu- 

 ated in medicine from the University of Cambridge 

 in 1595. Under that diploma he undertook to prac- 

 tice medicine in London. Henry VIII had granted 

 to the College of Physicians of London (which is 

 not a teaching college as we know them), the 

 supervision of the practice of medicine within 

 the city of London, or within seven miles of the 

 city, and no person was to be permitted to so prac- 

 tice unless he be a member of the said College of 

 Physicians. King Henry said that he ''held it 

 necessary to restrain the boldness of wicked men 

 who professed physic more for avarice than out 

 of confidence of a good conscience, ' ' The statute 

 of Henry permitted the imposition of a fine upon 

 violators, and by a later amendment violators 

 might be imprisoned. Bonham appeared before 

 the board of censors of the College of Physicians 

 several times, but failed to pass the required exam- 

 ination, and he was forbidden to practice. He 

 persisted, and in 1606 he was arrested by the 

 censors, and was tried by them, fined and im- 

 prisoned. He brought action against the censors 

 for false imprisonment, and the case was heard 

 before Lord Coke.^ Lord Coke held that under 

 the terms of the statutes no man could be impris- 



1 Public Health, 425. 2 8 Coke, 107a. 



