The Sun.
London, England, 1840-10-07 00:00:00

terms, which ninety-nine out of every hundred of
the unprofessional body knew and know HO more
about than they did and do about the state of
medical science in the moon ; and thus their labours
were in a great measure thrown away. The article
before us is no exception to the general rule ; but
we have laid our hand upon an excellent pamphlet
1836, from the pen of a
published
"nin
London Royal College of Member
o If theYl Sur-
geons, supplying all that we regard as defective in
the class of publications to which we are alluding.
It is entitled " A Sketch of the Medical Mono-
polies, with a plan of Reform ;" and is addressed
l
to Lord JOHN RUSSELL, then Home Secretary.
Let us premise that in making a brief abstract from
it, our object is to enable unprofessional readers to
whom the details of the question of Medical Re-
form are little known, to comprehend its great bear-
' ing upon the public welfare
The circle of medical practice in Great Britain
and Ireland embraces three corporate bodies, the
Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons, and the Com-
pany of Apothecaries. The College of Physicians
was instituted by letters-patent in 1519, and recog-
nised by Act of Parliament four years subse-
quently. This College consisted at the time of its
institution of about twenty members, to whom was
entrusted the administration of physic in the city
of London, and in all places within a circle of
seven miles around it. The Corporation was al-
lowed to admit any number of members it pleased
into its own body, with a view to the promotion of
the health and convenience of the public ; but as it
had also the power conceded it of making bye-laws
for its internal government, the members were not
slow to discover that by keeping down the number
of physicians they would. increase the demand for
their services and the amount of their fees. The
consequence need not be dwelt upon. The public in-
terests were sacrificed to professional emolument.
Quacks sprung up like mushrooms ; and notwith-
standing the most zealous exertions of the College
of Physicians to put them down by legal prosecu-
tions, the dearth of professional attendance pro-
cured them a rich harvest among the humbler
classes in the metropolis. The barber-surgeons,
and the druggists who compounded the prescrip-
tions of the physicians, were not slow to profit by
the short-sighted and inhuman policy of the colle-
giate body. From bleeding, applying salves, and
compounding drugs, the road to prescribing medi-
cine for all complaints common to the poor wag
short and obvious. Impunity begat confidence ;
and patronage awakened a laudable desire to de-
serve it. Prescription made that which was wrong
in law right in fact ; so that, when the Corpo-
ration of Physicians, in 1704, prosecuted Mr. ROSE,
an apothecary, for prescribing medicine for an in-
ternal complaint, the House of Lords reversed
the sentence of the Jury finding him guilty, on the
equitable ground that the preseriptive right
claimed by the defendant was essential to a due re-
gard for the public health. From that period the
Company of Apothecaries rose into importance, till
in 1315, by a trick es nefarious as the cited bye-
law of the Corporation of Physicians, its members
procured an Act of Parliament restricting the right
of practising as an apothecary, in cases of physicians
and surgeons no less than the public, to persons who
had served an apprenticeship of five years to that
branch of the profession. Under this Act the Apo-
thecaries' Company in England and Ireland have
contrived to harass and annoy their professional
brethren to an extent which in many cases has
amounted to persecution. The writer in the Bri-
tish and Foreign Review appears to labour under
an impression that such persecutions are at present
unknown in Ireland. We beg to assure him that
he is entirely mistaken in his estimate of the mode-
ration of the Irish branch of the Apothecaries
Company. Three months have not elapsed since
the daily and weekly press of Ireland teemed with
accounts of the prosecution of medical practitioners,
and especially of surgeons, for practising as apothe-
caries without having served an apprenticeship.
This is the more disgraceful as the author of the
pamphlet before us states that the business of an
apothecary could be as effectually learned in five
months as in five years. Furthermore in the case
of surgeons of high standing, whose professional ac-
quirements place them infinitely above mere apothe-
caries, who does not see in these prosecutions an
attempt to degrade a liberal profession to an equa-
lity with corporations of simple tradesmen ?
The remedy proposed by the Author of the
Sketch of Medical Monopolies," and adopted
by a large class of the petitioners to Parliament
whose pe.itions are canvassed by the Reviewer, is
simple, equitable, and, in our opinion, quite practi-
cable. He suggests the suppression of the Corpo-
rations of Physicians and Surgeons,
and the amal-
gamation of the whole body uteler a common desig-
nation. To meet the objections of the physicians,
he proposes that the medical profession shall
henceforth be divided into two branches—the
Senior and the Junior ; and that the whole body of
living physicians shall constitute the senior branch,
while the junior shall be composed entirely of sur-
geons. He proposes the establishment of an uni-
form system of education and of examination for
all medical students throughout the United Kiag-
doin, without regard to the collegiate claims of the
Universities, or of any corporate body whatever ;
that students admitted to be members of the pro-
fession shall be at liberty to profess any or every
branch of it ; and that the qualification to practise
medicine or surgery in London, Dublin, or Edin-
burgh shall be deemed common not only in these
cities respectively, but to every other part of tin.
British dominions. To maintain the division o
the profession into two branches, he proposes that
after the adoption of the uniform system of
medical education, the first or senior branch
shall consist of practitioners of ten years' standing
and upwards ; while all the rest shall be ranked as
juniors. As an encouragement to students wha
might graduate in any of the Universities, he
would allow them to pass into the senior branch in
five years, and medical men on becoming eminent
in their profession, he would admit to the distinction
of seniorship on being elected by the senior body.
The system here indicated, or one which shall
embrace the principles which it embodies, must be
very shortly adopted by the Legislature. In this
age of steam by land and water, when accidents
out-number, by a thousand times, all the death-
diseeses to which the human frame is subject, the
old professional etiquette which apportioned
the
human body among
different doctors, must be
abolished. We live too fast to have time to call in
more than one member of the profession ; and it is )
not taxing human acquirements excessively to ex-
pect that the one called in shall be properly
qualified to set a broken bone, prescribe a

1 draught, or a blister. More professional know-
-1 ledge can be now
twenty years half a century ago ; nor is there
anything to prevent a young man of ordinary appli-
cation from being acquired in a year than could in
qualified to practice as a surgeon,
a physician, and an apothecary at the age at which
it is nowltsual to obtain a diploma
for either of
these branches of medical science. John Buil can-
not tolerate much longer the legion of abuses re-
sulting from the combined effects of monopoly and
quackery.

It was currently reported
on Monday evening, that the Ministers of Public
Works, Financ3, on the Paris Bourse
War, Iw_ and Marine, io up to
THIERS
that day had opposed the war policy of