UNQUALIFIED MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS. 647 
by the public with these hordes of disreputable adventurers, 
we would put the whole question on a much broader ground, 
— that of the welfare of the public ; and, at the present time, 
when the subject of Medical Reform is before Parliament, we 
feel it to be especially necessary to call attention to this phase 
of our social economics. 
The “ Occupation Returns” of the Census for 1851 are 
not yet issued ; and hence, for the present, we must adopt 
such data as we have in endeavouring to estimate the amount 
of unqualified practice of medicine which prevails in Great 
Britain. For this purpose, we take the Census of 1841, 
tabulating the persons there returned as practising in the 
various departments of medicine and surgery, and comparing 
those with the number of qualified medical men returned in 
the “London and Provincial” and “Scottish” Medical Direc- 
tories for 1851. This plan, we are aware, gives an over- 
whelming advantage on the side of the quack, since it ignores 
the increase which must have accrued to this class under each 
head in the ten years, 1841-51 ; but, even on this showing, the 
results will be instructive, and we hope may be of some 
service in directing public attention to a most fruitful source 
of evil as it respects the public health. 
The results, then, would appear to be as follow: — In 
Great Britain, in 1841, there were 21,531 persons practising 
one or more departments of medicine without qualification, 
the numbers of the Census being 33 , 339 , and of the Direc - 
tories 1 1,808. In England, according to the Census, there 
was thus a practitioner to every 543 of the population ; in 
Wales, 1 in 822 ; in London, 1 to every 272 ; in Scotland, 1 
in 593; and in the British Isles, 1 in 510; while, taking the 
numbers in the Medical Directory, the proportion of qualified 
men to population was, in England, 1 in 1527 ; in Wales, 1 
in 2893 ; in London, 1 in 714; in Scotland, 1 in 1614; and 
in the British Isles, 1 in 2215. 
It will be observed, that we have included in the above, 
“ Chemists and Druggists ;” and there is sufficient reason for 
so doing. It appears that, deducting the chemists and drug- 
gists from the grand total, would leave 22,495 persons prac- 
tising medicine according to the Census, or 10,687 more than 
appear in the Medical Directories. Thus there is 1 chemist 
and druggist in Great Britain to every 2 medical prac- 
titioners. This warrants the assumption, that “ chemists 
and druggists’ 5 are themselves practitioners to a great extent. 
Indeed, the experience at assizes and before coroners’ juries, 
where detection and conviction are the exceptions, sufficiently 
attests the fact. We therefore include them in the gross 
