The Sun.
London, England, 1827-06-22 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The subject brought before the House of
Commons on Wednesday last by Mr. Warbur-
ton, in moving for papers connected with the
establishment of the Royal College of Surgeons,
was one of great importance to society. It ap-
pears that many complaints have from time to
time, and are at this hour made by the proles-
lion generally, against the manner in which the
extensive powers of those who direct the affairs
of the above-mentioned College are administered.
A petition upon this subject has been presented
to the House cf Commons, bearing the signa=
tures of professional men, and detailing at some
length the various points of gievance. The
governing body of the College, it seems is com-
posed of a President, Vice-Presidents, and a
Courici). of 21 Members, 10 of which latter con-
teitutt at the same time the Court of Examiners
for deciding on the qualifications of candidates
to be admitted as practising members of the pro-
fession. The Council has the power of filling
up all vacancies in its own body—that is to say,
it is a self-perpetuating Council. It shares
amongst its members all the offices of the in-
stitution, of which the greater portion are for
life ; it appropriates the funds at its own plea-
-sure, communicating with no person out of
floors, nor holding itself accountable to any ;
it makes by-laws, which the whole profession
must obey. These are enormous powers ; they
draw after them a fearful moral responsibility,
and entail on those who pervert or abuse them
the just visitation of whatever censure, or what-
ever. restrictive authority, they may provoke.—
Great stress has been laid by the authors of this
-petition on the regulations which are referred to,
as having proceeded from the Council in the
year 1823. 1. It was enacted that, so far as
London was concerned, no certificates of attend-
ance on anatomical or surgical lectures, or of the
per; rmance_ of .dissections, should be received,
except from physicians or surgeons of hospitals,
or from persons teaching in a school acknow-
ledged by the medical establishment of an hos-
pital. This restriction, although since abolisted)
is alluded to as evidence of the dispositio-a which
for the most part governs an arbitraey and self-
elected body of men. 2. The Court refused to
admit persons to examination, unless they had at-
tended the surgical practi.te of an hospital for one
-year, in Lcindon, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow,
or Aberdeen, elthough many provincial hospitals
in England contain a greatest number of patient:
and therefore more ample opportunities for in-
struction than three out of the five of the above-
mend University hospitals. This rule has since
been partially and incompletely modified, by re-
ceiving certificates from other schools of surgery,
but requiring a previous attendance at one
of the former five. 3. Besides which, two
years' attendance i 9 called for at provin-
cial hospitals instead of one, and certi-
ficates of attendance at summer courses
in London are excluded ; many members of the
Council being, either in their own persons or
through their connexions, interested in the winter I
course.. The petition contains many ;Aber topics
of complaint ;—as, that the examin:iion carried on
by the Court is an insufficient trial of surgical skill
and fitness, Goveniment requiring for army and navy
surgeons, a more perfect; and entice] test : and that
the subject of midwifery is excluded from the col-
lege examinatio-,10. The petition concludes with a
prayer to the 'Rouse, that the members of the Col-
lege at 11,:ege shell hare the power of annually elect-
ing the members of the Coueeil. There ma one
question interwoven with the merits of the general
subject, as treated by Mr. Peal and Mr. Warburton,
"ibich is of a revolting, but highly important' tie-
ture,---nareetT, by what-4proecesor
bodies to be procured for dissection, through which
only the scientific knowledge of anatomy can be ad-
.vanced or retained ? The real difficulties in this case
are two-fold,—lst, that no human being eals di-
vest himself of something like horror at the notion
of surrendering the remains of a friend or relative
to the reckless point of the dissecting knife, and
to the technical and heartless scrutiny of
strangers. 2. That the enly subjects now available
by law to the anatomist are the corpses of
executed felons—a circumstance which, of course,
must aggravate the repugnance of the general mass
to see the remains of those who were dear to them

exposed to a similar violatiOn, and which, by its en-
hancement of the difficulty of procuring bodies
through any lawful means, throws the trade into
'the hands of a set of vagabonds, who are willing to
run the gauntlet of general execration, or of legal
prosecution, in the practice of stealing corpses from
the grave. The vileness and atrocity by common

consent attributed to the whole tribe of resurrection-

men, is an additional obstacle in the way of such

alterations, whether of law or custom, as might faci-
litate the supply of bodies. Mr. Peel's proposition
of anatomizing the remains of convicted felons who
•Io not live to be hanged, rather strengthens, in one
cease, the objections we have been urging to the
actual condition of thing, inasmuch as it tends to
confirm the prejudice that disgrace attaches both to
the surviving friends, and to the posthumous repu-
tation of an individual, whose body has bean dis-
3ected. Surgeons ought to begin by subscribing an
unanimous resolution, that they will one and all set

the example of bequeathing their own corpses, and
delivering those of their families, to certain hospi-
tals or schools, for dissection; in which case, we

doubt not that before ten years had expired, anato-

mical subjects might be had on easy terms.—Times.
The allusion of Earl Grey, on Wednesday
night, to the abominable law, under which all
those who utter what has a tendency to bring
either House of Parliament into contempt, may
for a second offence be sent into banishment,

will, we hope, serve to stimulate those on whom
the duty devolves, to procure its repeal with as
little delay as possible. kis true, that the law
15 so extravagantly unjust that it cannot in ordi-
nary times be carried into execution ; but the

very living under it must have a pestiferous in-
fluence on the minds of the population. If the
character of good government is, that the people
derive their security from the law, and not from

the discretion of the governors, what must that

security be which is derived from the non-
execution of the law ? We cannot help thinking
that it required no great labour to prepare a pro-
per Bill for the repeal of the obnoxious law ; and
that it would have been, upon the whole, pru-
dent in Ministers to have freed themselves from

such taunts as that of Earl Grey, to which we
have alluded.—With respect to bringing into
contempt, it may be observed, that parties them-
selves are generally the authors of the contempt
into which they may have fallen. If, for in-
stance, the proceedings of the Upper House be
characterized by wisdom and prudence ; if they
who take a prominent part in these proceedings
display a strong zeal for the general welfare, and
an exemption from grossly selfish motives, think-
ing only of the general interest, and ready, like
that specimen of a truly Noble Peer, the Earl
of Winchelsea, to sacrifice his own property
for the general good, to trample it under
foot, how, we ask, could a feeling of con-
tempt be excited against such a House, and
i
such virtuous Members of t ? Contempt must
have a cause in the object of it. No man—
for instance, not even a Bonapartist—would
think of treating the Duke of 'Wellington, in his
military capacity, with contempt, or the gallant