The Sun.
London, England, 1828-11-03 00:00:00

quired, and a more strict and extensive exami-
nation into their medical proficiency must be en-
forced. The onening. of. the London University,
'which has excited the emulation of other schools,-_.
the commencement of more perfect courses of private
prelection, both in the capital and elsewhere,—and
the more scrutinizing appliCation of the powers of
the press to the conduct of practitioners, present
fresh sources of hope for the rapid advancement of
• medical science and growing improvement of surgical
and medical practice. We cannot conclude these
hasty remarks without expressing our disapprobation
of the conduct of an able medical journal, which has
attacked the new regulations in a style of ribaldry,
for which it would require its former merits towards
the public and the profession to procure forgiveness.
We quote from another publication a more candid
estimate of their value.
(From the Medical Gazette of Oct. 25.)

"REGULATIONS OF THE APOTHECARIES' COWAN'S'.

" The last 20 years have been replete with wonders ;
the advances made in every department of knowledge have
been so great as to force themselves on the notice of the
most careless observer. The application of steam to na,
vitiation and manufactures on the one band, and the mi-
racles of modern chymiatry on the other, may be looked
upon as the triumphs of art and science. Within the pe-
riod we have specified, the human mind appears to have
received an impetus which is felt in every relation of life,
and which has operated, and still continues to operate, the
most important changes in the whole frame of society.
" Probably therela no department in which the impulse
of itiprovement has been more extensively felt, or more
generally acted upon, than in our profession. No physi-
cian can now rely upon his academical education alone, or
upon his acquaintance with the learned lore of antiquity,
for his knowledge of the healing art, as practised in modern
times ; no stugeon can trust for success in life to mere
manual dexterity; no general practitioner can now venture
to be the thine* an apothecary was—a mere culler of simples
and vender of draughts.
" The improvement among the individuals composing
both the physicians and surgeons of this country has un-
questionably been great within the last few years; but a
still more striking change has taken place with regard to
the apothecary; indeed, so thoroughly are the present race
ashamed of their predecessors, that they seem anxious to
discard the very name, mid to substitute the term general
practitioner. The name is of little moment, but the
class of men is so different, that we do not wonder they
should be desirous of separating themselves, in public egg-
matioti, from the apothecary of the last century.
" This improvement has been owing to various cauees,
some of a general and others of a Particular nature ; but
among these we cannot omit the effect of the peace, which,
by opening the treasures of continental literature, so long
withheld from us, and by making us acquainted with many
wholesome and important regulations established abroad
with regard to professional education, speedily produced
among ourselves a spirit of honourable emulation, which
has ied to the happiest results.
" Nor would it bejust; as regards the rising generation
of general practitioners, to overlook the establishment,
about the same period, of the Court of Examiners of the
Apothecaries' Company—a body, whom it has been the
fashion with some to censure, apparently for no ether
purpose than to foster the feelings of jealousy with which
men holding places of emolument and trust 'are always
viewed by those who are not so fortunately situated.
" That the Apothecaries' Company is the best institu-
tion of the kind which it might be possible to frame, we
are far from asserting ; we know none of our corporate
bodies which are ; but this we know, that betMe the Act
'of 1816 the professional education which individuals should
pass through before they commenced practice as apothecaries
was left to their own judgment or conscience ; and these,
it is well known, were but poor guarantees for the safety of
their patients. The consequence was, that they were for
the most part a set of ill-educated and ignorant men, who
reflected discredit on medicine as a profession. But the
Apothecaries' Company have required an education, the
standard of which they have been gradually raising, until
it now constitutes an excellent course of general medical
instruction. Their recent regulations are also superior to
those originally laid down by them, inasmuch as they re.
quire that the pupil shall pursue his studies in a certain
order ; for example, he is not allowed to attend the prac-
tice of medicine before he has gone through certain other
courses—an arrangement altogether proper, since the na-
ture and treatment of disease cannot he understood without
a previous knowledge of particular organs and structures,
as well as of the various agents we employ to effect the
• necessary changes upon them.
" Much l.as been said about examinations alone consti-
tuting the. test of knowledge; and we are decidedly of
1 opinion that "there is room for improvement in the man-
ner in which these are generally conducted in 'this neon-
try : bete, too, our continental neighbours furnish us with
some examples worthy of imitation. But, conducted as OE-
ciently aspossible, they cannot be so perfect as to form an ab-
solute measure of scientific knowledge, much less of practical
skill ; and the public are best protected against the evils of
ignorance by the combination of a 'reliminary education,
such as ought to send the pupil forth into the world fully
qualified for the duties he undertakes, with an examination
sufficiently rigid to ascertain whether his time has been
properly employed. We think the apothecaries in a great
measure combine these, because the former is shown by
their regulations; and as to the latter, we know, and all
medical pupils ought to know it also, that 114 have re-
jected a very large proportion of those who have couie
before them ; thus proving their determination to insist
on more than the mere production of the requisite testimo-
nials. One of the principal sources of these rejections has
been a defective knowledge of Latin ; and it behoves the
parents and guardians of medical students to direct their
attention at an early period of their education on this
subject.

it Fur the information of thase whom it may interest,
we gave, in a former number, the regulations which have
recently been issued. In this Gazette will be found a
letter from Mr. Watson, explanatory of some points which
were not well understood. We perceive that two additional
courses are required—viz., one of muteria medics, and one
of chyrnistry, making it necessary fur the pupil to attend
two courses of lectures on each of these subjects. Pupils
are also hereafter required to attend medical practice at an
hospital for nine months, or at a dispensary for twelve.
There is sonic awkwardness in this arrangement, as we be-
lieve that at present pupils are not admitted to the medical
practice of an hospital except fur six months, a year, or
some longer period ; so that the pupils wishing to attend
•medical practice at an hospital will be put to some incon-
venience, unless either they take out their tickets fur a year,
or the physicians make a specific regulation, to suit that of
the Apothecaries' Company. It is also speoitled to come
within the limits of these regulations that the hospital
must contain not less than sixty beds—a circumstance
which it is of great importance for pupils to be aware of,
as it excludes some of those certificates which have been
advertised as admissible.

" One word to the Court of Examiners, and we have
done. 'Phis journal professes to be perfectly independent in
its politics with regard to all the corporate bodies, and as-
suredly the gentlemen at Blackfriars have had no cause to
complain of us; but let them be careful how they alter their
regulations without very sufficient grounds. Such things
have been done elsewhere, and with an appearince of va-
cillation that has not tended to raise the character of the
bOdy alluded to in public estimation. The Apothecaries
have apparently been feeling their way, and it is probable
they could not at once have determined with safficieut pre-
cision, the course of education most suited to those whom
the Legislature has placed under their jurisdiction. Suffi-
cient time, hOwever, may now be considered as having
elapsed fur this purpose, and we trust it will be long ere
we have again to notice any change in their regulations."
(FROM THE MORNING JOURNAL.)

The manner in which the French are supplanting
us in the different markets of Europe, and under-
mining our influence in every quarter of the world, is
enough to excite the ire of a stoic. We have ex-
plained how we have been defrauded in our com-
mercial treaties with Prussia—how France has be-
nefitted by the dues we have relinquished—how the
Americans exclude our woollens, and continue to
supply our cotton—how from Spain we have been
shut out—and how, upon the Rhine, we have been
hampered by increased duties. We have dwelt upon
these insults and injuries again and again, without
producing the slightest effort, either of inquiry on
the part of his Majesty's Ministers, or of explana-
tion from the aggressors. But the way in which the
French are injering us in Portugal is a new feature
i" the catalogue of our commercial grievances.
The famous 'Metliven treaty with that kingdom gave
us a bounty on our manufactures equal to Is per
cent. ad vatorm. British manufactures were ad-
mitted into Portugal under that treaty, on payment
of 15 per e9nt, while the manufactures of other na-
tions were only admissible on
payment of a duty of
30 per cent. This' treaty expired in 1825,' and it
has never been renewed.—An understanding was
certainly come to by the respective, Governments

• that the same regulations would be enforced and the
same duties levied. But the distractions of Portu-
, gal. have.. rendered the marine police so lax, and the
officers of customs have been so careless, and withal
the people themselves have been alienated so much
,from the English, while, by our senseless and perni-
cious interference -in their private affairs, they have
so universally become hostile to our interests, that
neither has the implied engagement been rigor-
ously enforced, nor the contraband trade strictly
inhibited. In every shop in Lisbon and
Oporto are consequently to be seen French
and German manufactures, where similar manufac-
tures were never seen before. Onr trade is com-
pletely destroyed. The Irish merchant may now
keep his butter to himself, for the Dutch can out-
sell him. Our linens are superseded by the linens
of Germany. French cloths have supplanted the
cloths of our friends of Leeds, while French printed
cottons, French hosiery, and Flanders lace, exclude
similar articles of British manufacture. Good God I
Does the Duke of Wellington know what he is do-
ing—or rather what he is not doing ? for if this in•
attention to our interests be persisted in much longer,
we will soon not have a consumer left except our
own happy landholders. At this moment we have
not a single ship of war in the Tagus. British re-
sidents and British interests are entirely unpro-
tected. The French have assumed our place. They
occupy our station in that river, and have seized upon
what we have abandoned. The French have a brig
of war off Lisbon, called the Falcon, of 28 guns.
This vessel gives
.protection to the French specu-
lators, as well as to the agents of Palmella and his
faction in England. On board of this brig is an in-
triguing lawyer, a native of Oporto, of the name of
Borges, who is notoriously in the employment of
Palmella. This man is protected by the French,
and all his exertions are directed to insult and em-
barrass the present Government of Portugal. The
naval officer by whom he is protected is a creature
of Hyde de Neuville, the greatest enemy of Eng-
land that possibly exists, and he is stationed in the
Tagus by that Minister for no other purpose than to in-
jure our trade,annoy the Duke tie Cadoval,and promote
the miserable intrigues of Palmella—some of Which
perhaps we shall expose ere long. This conduct on
the part of the French liberal Ministry shows the
spirit they cherish towards England. If they can
injure us in airy possible way they never let a single
opportunity pass. They aim at ruling Portugal as
effectually as they now domineer over Spain; With
Spain they had sonic connexion, and were to a cer-
tain extent interested in her welfare. But with
Portugal they have no concern. They ought to
have no trade there, for they consume none of the
produce of Portugal. But Mere they are; they are
intriguing, we are asleep ; they are fomenting divi-
sions, we are negociating a thousand miles distant
from the spot where we should have an.able resident
Minister, and in the mean time our trade is in a
galloping decline.

(FROM THE NEWS.)

ALNIOST A SHAMPU TO KNOW DISK Li."

We return to the subject of this country, ever and
anon, rather as a matter of duty than of choice; be-
cause we feel that with its ultimate fate, good or
bad, the fortunes of England are indissolubly bound
up. Neither can enjoy a separate existence of inde-
pendence and prosperity ; the Powers of the Con-
tinent have nothing to do but " divide (them) and
conquer?' If we consider Ireland,,first, in reference
to her soil, we shall find that it contains lee nrilhou
acre(English) of waste land; which might be all
reclaimed at an average of about 71. 10s. per acre, so
as to produce a rental of 1/. per acre; while by the
most ordinary improvement in agriculture, the ex-
isting good land might be made to produce one-third
more than it does at present. This is all demon-
strable Truth ; yet from the writings, of many of our
publishing legislators of the time, one might be led
to conclude that the production both of man and
food in Ireland, had arrived at its ne plus ultra ;
and that nothing remained but to transport a surplus
population to another quarter of the world, where
the productive powers of the earth were yet somewhat
in advance of the multiplication of the human species;
or otherwise leave the supernumerary portion• of the
Milesiau race to the Malthusian regulators of supply
and demand ‘,‘ Pestilence, Disease, Famine, War, and
Company." Any of the Absolute Monarchies of
the Continent would see their way how to avail
themselves of the capacities of such a country, with-
out troubling the question of the " real presence."
What is most to be wondered at is, that the most
obvious of all methods of benefiting Ireland, is not
attempted : we sustain a Protestant Clergy at an
immense expence to promote jealousy, strife, discord,
and all uncharitableness; and we maintain in idle-
ness an army that would garrison Egypt (the " Gra-
nary cf the World"), to prowl about in menacing
counteraction of the mischiefs excited by the Par-
sons ! One year's pay of the whole of this phalanx
of destroyers would, properly employed, constitute a
capital, that—(with the concession of political
rights)—would transform the Sister Island into a
comparative Fairy Land of happiness; threatening
instant rivalry with, if not triumph over, the arts and
the sciences, the comforts and the splendours of life,
as they are found in England. Favoured by a sin-
gularly healthful climate, a prolific soil, and a chi-
valrous people, Ireland possesses in an eminent de-
gree all the elements of national greatness ; and
all the means of a moral ascendancy among nations
lie thick around her. Yet as she now exists, in
her serf-like connexion with England, she is feeble
before her own enemies or ours ; and formidable
only to the entireness of that common empire of
which she should be the first and chief bulwark.
There is really something monstrous iu witnessing
the exportation from Ireland every year of many
thouiands of able men to England, living partly by
labour and partly by plunder on our agricultural
districts ; who leave behind them, in their own native
scenes, much finer soils in a profitless waste, than
those from which they come to gather the brief dole
of a charitable employment. The subject of a legal
system for the protection of the Irish Poor, has di-
vided even the usual divisions of public men; and
when we consider the plunder that is practised on
the English people under the forms of the Poor
Laws, we do not wonder at it. Such a relief could
only be constructed so as to meet with proper sup-
port, under regulations essentially different from any
known in England. A Poor's Rate should be that
which it professes to be, and nothing else; and ought
to preclude a support in idleness under any and all
forms, except that of sickness; but here the term
would lose the force of its application. It ought
likewise to exclude what is called " out-door pay."
There should be no haY and three quarter paupers.
The whole force of the moral degradation of
pauperism ought to be left to its operation on
the mind. To attempt' to force a code of Poor
Laws on Ireland, without a complete and elementary
revision of the whole system, would' be to turn a
cloud of locusts upon it that would literally detour
capital, land, produce and all. A writer iu The
Quarterly" seems to consider that " Vagrancy"
and a system of " Poor Laws," cannot co-exist ;
but this is a legal distinction; the Law assuming the
non-existence of Vagrants; but all the Laws in the
world cannot suppress Vagrancy; all that it can do
is to spoil the trade of the Vagrant, if we may so
speak, by rendering it one not worth pursuing.—
Vagrancy in Ireland has arrived at its maximum, un-
less the Lord Lieutenant and his Court are destined,
to turn out and join the beggars. But numerous as
this Milesian Lazaroni may be, there are at least
three acres of waste land to every beggar ; and three
acres (half cultivated) to any Irishman, is a good
Estate. A million of Irishmen employed in grow-
ing murphies to export to the manufacturing districts
in Lancashire, &C., would employ 10,000 persons in
land and water carriage; and furnish. the markets
with the article one hundred per cent. cheaper than
it is now supplied. If the Emperor of China were
to be placed for twenty-four days on the English
Throne (granting law and custom to be in obeysice)
he would remedy nine-tenths of all the evils of the
empire by the simple operation of common sense.—
He would probably order Lord Kenyon and
Mr. O'Connell to be imprisoned in the same