XIII STATE AND THE MEDICAL PROFESSION 331 



by the State as medical practitioners 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 Medical 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 

 training 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 faculty of the University of 

 Edinburgh. The medical education and examina- 

 tions of this body were for many years the best of 

 their kind in these islands, and I doubt if, at the 

 present moment, the three kingdoms can show 

 a better school of medicine than that of Edin- 

 burgh. The vast number of medical students at 

 that University 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 the medical student in a good school, and the 



