Xlll STATE AND THE MEDICAL PROFESSION 327 



highest importance to the community that, in 

 civil and criminal cases, the law shall be able to 

 have recourse to persons whose evidence may 

 be taken as that of experts ; and it will not 

 be doubted that the State has a right to dictate 

 the conditions under which it will appoint persons 

 to the vast number of * naval, military, and 

 civil medical offices held directly or indirectly 

 under the Government. Here, and here only, 

 it appears to me, lies the justification for the 

 intervention of the State in medical affairs. It 

 says, or, in my judgment, should say, to the public, 

 " Practice medicine if you like go to be practised 

 upon by anybody;" and to the medical practitioner, 

 "Have a qualification, or do not have a qualification 

 if people don't mind it ; but if the State is to 

 receive your certificate of death, if the State is to 

 take your evidence as that of an expert, if the 

 State is to give you any kind of civil, or military, 

 or naval appointment, then we can call upon you 

 to comply with our conditions, and to produce 

 evidence that you are, in our sense of the word, 

 qualified. Without that we will not place you 

 in that position." As a matter of fact, that is the 

 relation of the State to the medical profession in 

 this country. For my part, I think it an extremely 

 healthy relation ; and it is one that I should be very 

 sorry to see altered, except in so far that it would 

 certainly be better if greater facilities were given for 

 the swift and sharp punishment of those who pro- 

 si 



