330 STATE AND THE MEDICAL PROFESSION xiil 



the students who came under it, or to degrade the 

 profession as a whole. My memory goes back to 

 a time when models from whom the Bob Sawyer 

 of the Pickwick Papers might have been drawn 

 were anything but rare. 



Shortly before my student days, however, the 

 dawn of a better state of things in England began 

 to be visible, in consequence of the establishment 

 of the University of London, and the compara- 

 tively very high standard which it placed before 

 its medical graduates. 



I say comparatively high standard, for the 

 requirements of the University in those days, and 

 even during the twelve years at a later period, 

 when I was one of the examiners of the medical 

 faculty, were such as would not now be thought 

 more than respectable, and indeed were in many 

 respects very imperfect. But, relatively to the 

 means of learning, the standard was high, and 

 none but the more able and ambitious of the 

 students dreamed of passing the University. 

 Nevertheless, the fact that many men of this 

 stamp did succeed in obtaining their degrees, led 

 others to follow in their steps, and slowly but 

 surely reacted upon the standard of teaching in 

 the better medical schools. Then came the 

 Medical Act of 1858. That Act introduced two 

 immense improvements : one of them was the 

 institution of what is called the Medical Register, 

 upon which the names of all persons recognised 



