Medicina Forensica. 1. THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS. "Perituræ parcite Chartæ." Ir the College or its partizans think that we have been too severe in our comments, or too extravagant in our demands for reformation, we beg they will calmly peruse the following document, drawn up and presented to the College 30 years ago, by 14 as eminent physicians as that Institution can boast of. In this remonstrance, petition, or whatever else it may be called, will be seen most of the leading principles for which we contend; and happy would it have been for the College, if it had hearkened to the reasonable request of the Licentiates thirty years ago, instead of having recourse to measures which we shall be compelled reluctantly to portray in our next number, should no appearances of better feelings be developed in the interim. "To the President and Fellows of the College of Physicians of London: "GENTLEMEN, 66 WE, whose names are subscribed, licentiates of the college of physicians of London, conceiving ourselves unjustly deprived of those professional honours and privileges to which we are entitled, and persuaded that every physician of irreproachable character and of competent learning has a legal right to be admitted a fellow of the college, submit to your dispassionate consideration the following grounds of this conviction. "In the beginning of the sixteenth century, when learning had made but little progress in this country, and medicine was chiefly practised by ignorant empirics, the physicians of London were incorporated into a college or community, by a charter from Henry VIII. The object of the grant, as declared by the charter, was to provide for the safety of the subjects of the realm, by restraining the VOL. VIII. No. 15. audacity of those wicked men, who prac tise medicine more from avaricious motives than from any good intention, to the great injury of the illiterate and credulous multitude. With this view, partly in imitation of well regulated states in Italy and many other countries, and partly in compliance with the prayer of John Chambre, Thomas Linacre, Fernando de Victoria, the king's physicians, of Nicholas Halsewell, John Francis, and Robert Yaxley, physicians, and of Cardinal Wolsey, a perpetual college of discreet and learned men was established, consisting of the above-named six physicians, and all other men of the same faculty, residing in London. The members of this body were authorised to exercise their profession in London and its neighbourhood, and at the same time, were strictly required to prevent every other person from practising medicine, either in that city or within seven miles round it, unless he had been admitted to do this by the college; and in order that this injunction might be carried fully into effect, they were invested with powers to punish the disobedient. "It is evident then, that neither the graduates of Oxford and Cambridge, nor those of any other university, were to derive any partial advantages from the charter; but on the contrary, that all discreet and learned physicians, residing in London at the time it was granted, were indiscriminately admissible into the college, and that the perpetuity of the body was to be preserved by the reception of every physician of the same description, who should ever practise medicine in London, or its vicinity, and should claim to be a member. Can it be supposed, that Henry VIII. while he declared that the good of his subjects at large was the object of his grant, in reality meant to 31 6 benefit only a few, to the prejudice of of the charter, the college consisted many; or, that he thought physicians of chiefly of persons who had graduated learning and good morals were to be found, abroad; secondly, that one of the ancient exclusively, among the graduates of Oxford and Cambridge, though the only physicians he himself employed had taken their degrees abroad? Can it be for a moment imagined, that the principal physicians who obtained the charter, all of them foreign graduates, could intend, that none under the like circumstances should ever after have a right to claim admission into the college; or, that if either their sovereign or themselves had entertained such a design, this would not have been expressly declared? statutes of the college expressly relates sedet decenter examinandus, ne quid indignum pati a nostrâ examinationum formâ mater academia videatur;' a regulation which clearly implies that foreign graduates might also be examined as candidates for the fellowship. "But had any obscurity existed in the language of the charter, with respect to the description of persons to be admitted into the college, or had experience dis-academiarum susceperit, honoris causa covered, that the qualifications required by it were inadequate to the attainment of the object of the grant, ample opportunities were afterwards afforded of explaining what was doubtful, of amending what was wrong, and of supplying whatever had been found wanting. Four years after the date of the charter, while the sovereign who bestowed and the six physicians who obtained it, were still living, an act of parliament was passed, in consequence of a petition from the same physicians, confirming the old, and conveying new privileges to the college. No change, however was made by it in the requisites for admission. Various other acts of parliament, of a still later date, relating to the college, are to be found in our statute books, but all of them are silent respecting the admission of members. Nor does there occur any new article upon this head, in the charters granted to the college by James I. and Charles II. We have therefore the ful lest evidence, that the only qualifications for admission into that body required by the charter of Henry VIII. were learning and good character, and that the various parliaments which confirmed that charter, and the different sovereigns who granted others, all concurred in regarding those qualifica tions as sufficient. The college, indeed, for many years after their incorporation, did not demand any other. Not to accumulate proofs of this point, we shall only mention, first that it appears from Seymour, in his Survey of London, that in 1575, fifty-seven years after the grant "Should it be objected to what has here been advanced, that those physicians who had taken degrees abroad, were obliged, before they were received into the college, to be incorporated to a degree at Oxford or Cambridge, we would in reply maintain, that this practice was not adopted, till some time after the foundation of the college, and that the by-law which gave rise to it was illegal. But how was incorporation in medicine at the English universities formerly obtained? On this point, Dr. Winterton furnishes ample information. In a letter to Dr. Foxe, president of the college of physicians of London, dated so lately as in 1635, he writes, "I have observed and grieved to see, sometimes a minister, sometimes a serving man, sometimes an apothecary, admitted to a licence to practise in physic, or to be incorporated to a degree, without giving any public testimony of his learning and skill in the profession;' and in another part of the same letter he says, that incorporation was in an instant obtained by a little sum of money.' Such an incorporation could surely furnish no proof of the learning or character of a candidate for admission into the college; and the only motive for requiring it, seems to have been a desire in the members to increase the emolu ments of the universities, where many of themselves had been educated. "The act of parliament passed in the fourteenth year of Henry VIII. ratifying the charter of the college, indeed grants one privilege to those physicians, who had taken their degrees at Oxford or Cambridge, without any grace; namely, that of practising medicine in any part of the kingdom, except London, without being subject to an examination before the college. But this very grant confirms our claim, for since a particular privilege is specified in the act, it is clear the legislature intended that those graduates should derive no other from it. "It may be said, however, that although neither the crown, nor the legis lature, has conferred any privilege upon the graduates of Oxford and Cambridge, with respect to admission into the college, still the members of the college themselves have a right to make a distinction in this respect, in favour of those graduates, by virtue of the power to frame by-laws which their charter confers upon them To this we answer, that it is an established maxim in law, that the power in corporations to make by-laws extends only to matters of regulation. They can create no new rights, nor take away any of those which are conveyed by the charter of incorporation. They can change neither the object of the institution, nor the nature of the succession. Every candidate included in the meaning of a corporate grant, and possessing the qualifications required by it, of whatever nature they may be, has an undoubted right to an examination of his claim, which, if it prove satisfactory, must be admitted. "The arguments we have urged we shall now support by the authority of men, long conversant in the interpretation of ancient records, of the most profound knowledge of the laws of our country, and above all suspicion of prejudice or partiality; of men, not giving their opinions casually or lightly, but solemnly delivering them in their high characters as judges, upon a subject they had maturely considered. "In the case of the licentiates against the censors of the college (Burrow's Reports, Vol. IV.) Lord Mansfield delivered the following opinions: "The main end of the incorporation was to keep up the succession, and it was to be kept up by the admission of fellows after examination. The power of examining, and admitting after examination, was not an arbitrary power, but a power coupled with a trust. They are bound to admit every person whom on examination they think fit to be admitted, within the description of the charter, and the act of parliament which confirms it. The person who comes within that description has a right to be admitted into the fellowship. He has a claim to several exemptions, privileges, and advantages attendant upon admission into the fellowship; and not only the candidate himself, if found fit, has a personal right, but the public has also a right to his service, and that not only as a physician, but as a censor, as an elect, as an officer in the offices, to which on admission he will become eligible.' "The charter and statute have left every thing at large to the college, no way confined or restrained but by the fitness of the objects.' "I think that every person of proper education and requisite learning and skill, and possessed of all other due qualifications, is entitled to have a licence, and I think he ought, if he desires it, to be admitted into the college. "It has been said, that there are many among the licentiates who would do honour to the college by their skill and learning, as well as other valuable and amiable qualities, and that the college themselves, as well as every body else, are sensible that this is in fact true and undeniable. If this be so, how can any by-laws which exclude the possibility of admitting such persons, stand with the trust reposed in them of admitting all that are fit.” In the trial of Dr. Letch, Mr. Justice Aston, after quoting part of the act of parliament of the fourteenth of Henry VIII. which confirms the charter said; This shows that the makers of the act looked upon those of the faculty residing in London to be members of the college. He added, that if the college should refuse to examine a candidate, a mandamus would lie It was also his opinion, that in grants of this kind, the construction ought to be made in a liberal manner. "Mr. Justice Yates in the course of the trial of the licentiates against the censors, expressed himself thus: A good deal has been said about long usage. But VANCEMENT OF OUR PROFESSION. "The college cannot feel more strongly than we do the necessity of being cautious with respect to the members they admit, or be more anxious that unimpeached morals and competent learning should be the tests of eligibility. Nor should we object to any other regulations that might secure the utility and dignity of the institution, provided they were impartially extended to every candidate before, and to every member after admission. But we cannot rest satisfied with the present mode of introducing licentiates through favour: because it implies, on our part, a defect of right, and inferiority of qualification; because it is precarious, and subjects many of our body to be contemptuously passed by, and consequently to be depreciated in their characters, and wounded in their feelings; because it ENCOURAGES SERVILITY TOWARDS THE COLLEGE, and coMPETITION and ANIMOSITY among ourselves; and finally, because it exposes us, even after admission into the community, to be considered, by some at least, as intruders, who owe to the bounty of patronage, what ought to be the reward of merit. "At this period, when ignorant and unprincipled empirics so greatly infest the capital, and when, perhaps, the severe measures once exercised, with respect to such men, are no longer practicable, does it not become the especial duty of the college to draw the strongest possible line of distinction between the upright and skilful physician, whose interest the legislature designed to promote, and the daring impostor it meant to restrain and to punish? "This application arises from no hasty project, or restless spirit of innovation. It is meant to advance a claim, which, we are well warranted to believe, is founded both in law and in equity, a claim repeatedly urged by our predecessors, who, we are convinced, only failed in their attempts to establish it from the injudicious measures they pursued.* "We conclude this address, by acquainting you, that several of our (number, against whom no objection can be made in respect of morals or conduct, are desirous to submit to your decision, their claim, as men of learning and skill in their profession, to be members of the college; and by requesting to know, whether, upon application being made by any such person for an examination, previously to his being a candidate for a fellowship, you will admit him to the same trials, which the graduates from Oxford * We beg leave to refer our readers to "An EXPOSITION of the State of the Medical Profession, &c." published by Longman and Co. 1826, pp. 373. and Cambridge in like cases undergo; and whether, if his learning, and skill, and character, be approved, you will receive him into the college upon the same terms, and in the same manner, as if he had graduated at either of those universities. John. Cooke W. C. Wells. Samuel Ferris. To the above address, the College gave no answer: and the Licentiates, finding that nothing could be obtained from the equity of the Corporation, proceeded to the recovery of their privileges by law. Of the proceedings which ensued, and over which, it would be well for the College that the veil of oblivion were for ever drawn, it will be our painful duty to speak in our next number. II. MEDICAL EDUCATION. The Physical Society of Guy's Hospital opened on Saturday night, the 6th of October, with a most animated discussion of a paper read by Dr. Hodgkin, on Medical Education. The theatre was crowded to excess, and many of the most talented members of the profession were present as visiters. Dr. H.'s paper was almost entirely dedicated to the subject of the student's education subsequent to the completion of the apprenticeship, as he did not think that the preceding portion of the student's time came properly under his (Dr. H.'s) cognizance. The Society, however, thought otherwise, and the whole evening was occupied with arguments for and against apprenticeships. Dr. Addison opened the campaign, and made a most brilliant and powerful speech. He placed in the most striking point of view the absurdity of that law, which condemned the young man to sacrifice five years of his life-say from 15 to 20- to the drudgery of pounding and compounding drugs, whose chemical properties and medicinal agencies he was entirely ignorant of, while the short space of 18 months was considered sufficient for acquiring the whole range of the medical sciences afterwards! He did not wish to throw any blame on the Worshipful Company of Apothecaries. They had, doubtless, done all they could to improve the education, and, consequently, the utility and respectability of the general practitioner-and infinite good had unquestionably been done by the late Act of Parliament. But still the law of apprenticeship was bad very bad-and most of the laws relating to the profession generally, were calculated to repress, rather than encourage medical science. He traced the bad laws of the Apothecaries' Company to a higher source than that of the company itself to the Royal College of Physicians-whose monopolizing statutes and illiberal restrictions were at once a nuisance and disgrace to the age we live in, and the country we inhabit. He said it was most deplorable that the ear of a monarch renowned for love of science, and the encouragement of literature, should be poisoned by men who ought to use their influence for the general good of the medical profession. Dr. A. indeed, drew a picture here, and made observations, which, though but too true, might yet endanger a prosecution, if we portrayed them in our pages. "The greater the truth, the greater the libel." The same view of the subject of apprenticeships was taken by Dr. Birkbeck, who ably exposed the loss of time thus incurred. He maintained that apprenticeships of all kinds were bad-even in the most mechanical trades. He forcibly argued that, when the youth is taken from school, say at the age of 16 years, he should at once commence the acquisition of general knowledge, and the rudiments of his own profession. Natural philosophy-natural history-chemistry-materia medica even anatomy, should be learnt during those years that are spent behind a coun |