MEDICAL REFORM. 
211 
Wise restraint from quackery would save many thousands of 
lives annually, at the expense only of credulity and folly on the 
one part, and ignorance and wickedness on the other [cheers]. 
The recent convictions of several such persons had greatly altered 
the tone of those who had before contended for their right to 
practise without being qualified for that function. 
Dr. Marshall Hall, in proposing the resolutions (already set 
forth as those upon which the present plan of reform is based), 
observed that he did so with unmingled satisfaction, inasmuch as 
he considered the general practitioners of the United Kingdom to 
be numerous enough and respectable enough to claim the exer- 
cise of power, and to take part in their government as a profes- 
sional body. Their present relation to that government was pre- 
cisely that of aliens in a foreign country. They must inscribe 
their names in a list, obtain a passport, and pay a contribution ; 
but they were no more a part of the medical commonwealth, than 
the foreigner just landed on our shores, and registered at the Alien 
Office, was of our nation or its institutions. They were aliens from 
the posts of medical government, alike from its posts of honour and 
those of profit. He had long regarded it as a solecism in govern- 
ment for one order of persons to legislate for another in whose 
feelings they had no participation. Let them form themselves 
into a compact body for their own mutual good, and apply to Go- 
vernment for incorporation as “ The Faculty of Medicine for 
powers to examine and grant licenses to practise throughout the 
British dominions, and for powers of self-government. This con- 
summation would not diminish but greatly augment the prosperity 
of physicians and surgeons. These being the sources of error, 
all who were desirous of further honour would resort to them. 
Only let the admissions into that College be honourable, by anni- 
hilating all the odious distinctions which had so long disgraced 
them. Let those who were admitted at all be admitted altoge- 
ther, enjoying equality of rights, and being equally eligible to 
posts of distinction. This was the case at the Royal Society ; 
and had any evil accrued from it? But he would also devise 
new titles and sources of honour. He would confer prizes, medals, 
and every kind of distinction, for real advances in science alone. 
He did not despise the advantages conferred by a knowledge of 
the classics and mathematics, by a degree from Oxford or Cam- 
bridge, &c., but he would, in institutions purely medical, place 
the reward for real improvements in medicine above them all. 
Let, then, the general profession combine for general good, incor- 
porate themselves, and then seek for legislative incorporation, 
power of self-government, &c. The curriculum and examination 
introductions to the faculty might be such as should be deemed 
best for the profession in general. The requirements for intro- 
