1882 MEDICAL ACTS COMMISSION 



43 



other on " Saprolegnia in relation to the Salmon Disease " 

 (Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, xxii. pp. 311-333). 

 A third, at the Zoological Society, was on the " Respiratory 

 Organs of Apteryx " (Proc. Z. S. 1882, pp. 560-569). He 

 delivered an address before the Liverpool Institution on 

 " Science and Art in Relation to Education " (Coll. Ess. iii. 

 p. 160), and was busy with the Medical Acts Commission, 

 which reported this year. 



The aim of this Commission * was to level up the varying 

 qualifications bestowed by nearly a score of different licens- 

 ing bodies in the United Kingdom, and to establish some 

 central control by the State over the licensing of medical 

 practitioners. 



The report recommended the establishments of Boards 

 in each division of the United Kingdom containing repre- 

 sentatives of all the medical bodies in the division. These 

 boards would register students, and admit to a final examina- 

 tion those who had passed the preliminary and minor ex- 

 aminations at the various universities and other bodies 

 already granting degrees and qualifications. Candidates 

 who passed this final examination would be licensed by the 

 General Medical Council, a body to be elected no longer by 

 the separate bodies interested in medical education, but by 

 the Divisional Boards. 



The report rejected a scheme for joint examination by 

 the existing bodies, assisted by outside examiners appointed 

 by a central authority, on the ground of difficulty and ex- 

 pense, as well as one for a separate State examination. It 

 also provided for compensation from the fees to "be paid by 

 the candidates to existing bodies whose revenues might 

 suffer from the new scheme. 



To this majority report, six of the eleven Commissioners 

 appended separate reports, suggesting other methods for 

 carrying out the desired end. Among the latter was Hux- 

 ley, who gave his reasons for dissenting from the principle 

 assumed by his colleagues, though he had signed the main 



* For a fuller account of this Commission and the part played in it 

 by Huxley, see his " State and Medical Education " (Coll. Ess. iii. 323), 

 published 1884. 



