HUNTERIAN ORATION. 41 



which the pubHc sustains from the ignorance 

 and fraud of empirics, petitioned parhament 

 to grant it a power of control, by process of 

 law, over those who set up to practise sur- 

 gery, without having undergone an examin- 

 ation, to testify their education or abihty : 

 a power not likely to be exercised except 

 in cases of flagrant offence ; a power also 

 determinable in its degree and effect by im- 

 partial judges, by the judges of the land. To 

 some of the members of the House of Com- 

 mons, however, this petition appeared like 

 an attempt to procure a monopoly of surgical 

 practice, and it was rejected. The College 

 still persevering in its endeavour to prevent 

 a great public evil, and desirous of freeing 

 itself from all imputation of being actuated 

 by interested motives, brought forwards a 

 new bill, entirely of a public nature, which 

 was also rejected ; so that, in these trans- 

 actions, the College may be said to have 

 lost every thing but its honour. 



The whole history of medical science 

 affords no instance of its promotion by 

 any individual, at all comparable with that 



