156 
MEDICAL EDUCATION. 
as well by their example as by their authority, the president , the 
censors, and elects thus establishing, that all persons so licensed 
became physicians of the realm, and that the Charter contem¬ 
plated no exclusion, no degradation of any body of men. And, 
thus fitted to take charge of disease, we defy any man to shew 
that any practitioners could be excluded at that time from the 
College, except on the ground of immoral character; and we will 
go further and say that, up to the period of 1815, the terms 
apothecary, and surgeon-apothecary, as applicable to a medical 
practitioner, however growing into use in common parlance, were 
terms unknown to the British constitution. It will be worth while 
to trace how the great masses of the medical community have, in 
the lapse of time, been juggled out of all benefit of the Royal 
Charter; in other words, how the physician of Henry VIII, under 
the rapid march of intellect, became the surgeon-apothecary of our 
own time ;—a task which the lapse of events would enable us to 
perform without personal invective, and even without personal 
allusion, except to names which are now become legitimately 
historical. 
Medical Times. 
Medical Education. 
As the session approaches it is well to turn attention to the state 
of medical and surgical education, and to suggest improvement, for 
truly there is room for it. We do not, however, propose at present 
to treat our readers to an essay on the subject, but merely to make 
some passing observations upon points raised and suggestions 
offered by our contemporaries. The following exempli gratia we 
copy with this view :— 
“ As the winter session will shortly commence, I would call 
your attention to what I consider a crying evil in some of the 
metropolitan schools, viz. that the professors themselves, in their 
several classes, examine the candidates for prizes and other hono¬ 
rary distinctions. 
“ I do not wish to cast any slur on their impartiality, for they are, 
doubtless, ‘ all honourable menyet it would surely be better, if 
some gentlemen unconnected with the school of the examined could 
be chosen as examiners.” 
Respecting this same question of premiums, we entertain a very 
decided opinion, so strong a one, indeed, that we do not well care 
to put it in print for fear of consequences. The advocates for the 
“ premium system” are so numerous, and so contented with tl^ 
results, that any suggestion of doubts as to its real value is not 
without danger. Still we must venture to observe, that, while 
premiums may be very good where all are examined, they may 
