332 STATE AND THE MEDICAL PROFESSION xill 



examination test applied by the great majority of 

 the present licensing bodies,- reduced now to 

 nineteen, in consequence of the retirement of the 

 Archbishop and the fusion of two of the other 

 licensing bodies, are totally different from what 

 they were even twenty years ago. 



I was perfectly astonished, upon one of my sons 

 commencing his medical career the other day, 

 when I contrasted the carefully-watched courses 

 of theoretical and practical instruction, which he 

 is expected to follow with regularity and industry, 

 and the number and nature of the examinations 

 which he will have to pass before he can receive 

 his licence, not only with the monstrous laxity of 

 my own student days, but even with the state of 

 things which obtained when my term of office as 

 examiner in the University of London expired 

 some sixteen years ago. 



I have no hesitation in expressing the opinion, 

 which is fully borne out by the evidence taken 

 before the late Eoyal Commission, that a large 

 proportion of the existing licensing bodies grant 

 their licence on conditions which ensure quite as 

 high a standard as it is practicable or advisable to 

 exact under present circumstances, and that they 

 show every desire to keep pace with the improve- 

 ments of the times. And I think there can be 

 no doubt that the great majority have so much 

 improved their ways, that their standard is far 

 above that of the ordinary qualification thirty 



