MEDICAL ACTS COMMISSION 169 



appointment of external examiners. Existing bodies 

 suffering pecuniary loss by the new arrangement to be 

 compensated. 



Huxley signed the majority report, but also submitted 

 a separate report of his own, based on the practice in 

 Scotland, and proposing : — 



"... that if any examining body satisfies the Medical 

 Council (or other State authority) that it requires full and 

 efficient instruction and examination in the three branches of 

 medicine, surgery, and midwifery ; and if it admits a certain 

 number of coadjutor examiners appointed by the State authority, 

 the certificate of that authority shall give admission to the 

 Medical Register " (Life, ii, p. 41). 



The Bill, brought in (1883) with the view of carrying 

 out the ideas expressed in the Report, was defeated. 



Two years later he explained his views in detail in 

 the opening Address of the London Hospital Medical 

 School on "The State and the Medical Profession" 

 (Coll. Essays, iii, p. 323). In this he objects to repressive 

 measures, and trades unionism in medicine, and thinks 

 ' over the counter ' practice ought to be permitted. The 

 State must legislate for death certificates, expert 

 witnesses, and government posts. 



It is pointed out that forty years previously there were 

 no less than twenty-one ways of obtaining a medical 

 qualification, including license by the Archbishop of 

 Canterbury. Improvements were effected by the Uni- 

 versity of London, and by the Medical Act of 1858, 

 which instituted a Medical Registrar and a Medical 

 Council. The methods of the Scottish Universities, 

 especially Edinburgh, are described. At the time of the 

 address (1884) the licensing bodies had been reduced to 

 nineteen, by retirement of the Primate, and union of two 

 other authorities. Two or three black sheep remained. 



