320 PRESENT STATE OF THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 
operation. Of two of the Examining Boards of England — the 
College of Surgeons and Physicians — one sends forth sawyers, 
plasterers, and joiners, for the outside of the building ; and the 
workmen from the other shop are to attend to the repair of the 
inner apartments, Nowit so happens that the plasterers and join- 
ers out of their own workshops (the hospitals) undertake all repairs, 
though not free of the craft. The inside workmen, on the other 
hand, are too often puzzled with holes and rents in the outer walls, 
which they are unable to mend. But the living house differs so 
materially from the house we live in, that one breach or flaw affects 
the whole habitation, and there is such a sympathy between all the 
apartments, that one cannot be materially out of repair without de- 
ranging the rest; and hence the necessity of compelling the work- 
man to learn all the arts, and then follow that which his taste or 
his circumstances may make most desirable. To a medical man 
the above comparison may appear superfluous, but as this article 
may be read by some unprofessional persons, who take an interest 
in medical reform, we are anxious to make the subject intelligible 
to all. The following account of these diploma shops, and the 
price of parchment at each, will place the matter in a clearer light 
before the reader, who must, also understand, that these bodies all 
require different curricula, and many of them have jurisdiction 
over certain localities. Thus, a circle of seven miles is drawn 
around London ; and provincial physicians are not allowed to prac- 
tise within this circle, unless they undergo another examination at 
the College of Physicians, and this monstrous absurdity was de- 
fended before the Parliamentary Committee by the President of 
the College, Dr. Paris, on the ground “ that a higher order of 
physicians should be secured for the metropolis ” The greater 
number of these establishments have thought only of their own 
narrow circles and petty interests, and, like the cobbler in the 
fable, “ Nothing like our parchment” has been their cry. Some 
of their acts have equalled those of eastern despots ; thus the mem- 
bers of the College of Surgeons, who passed the same examination 
as the councillors, were compelled to enter their own College at the 
back door, and about twenty self-elected individuals assumed the 
right of dictating to the 10,000 members whose remonstrances they 
treated with scorn and contempt. Many of these men have not 
only been well remunerated as examiners, but they have put money 
into their pockets by compelling students to pay for certain lectures 
which they delivered, and also for attending hospitals to which 
they were physicians or surgeons. 
And now for the establishments that exist in the United King- 
dom for granting diplomas in medicine and surgery. We have 
obtained the following information from various sources. 
