An inaugural address delivered before the Medical Society of the State of New York : at the Capitol in the city of Albany, on the 8th day of February, 1826 / by James R. Manley.

  • Manley, James R., 1781-1851.
Date:
1826
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inaugural address delivered before the Medical Society of the State of New York : at the Capitol in the city of Albany, on the 8th day of February, 1826 / by James R. Manley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    ! JO ed, either by changing the mode of compensating professors, in our various schools, so that the profits of teaching shall not exclusively depend on the number of pupils graduated : or by a positive law, which shall separate the license from the degree, and thereby render it simply a professional distinc- tion : the latter is the corrective, most easy, most effectual, and has become essential. As college honours, those degrees when unmerited, could do no harm, further than to degrade the authorities which issue them ; but as licenses to practice physic, they are causes of incalculable mischief: deprived of the privileges which the liberality of our law now accords to them, they would of necessity be less numerous, but their value would increase as their numbers diminished ; since none but those who aspired to character in their profession would become candidates for a distinction which was purely acade- mic, and conferred no rights, except such as could not fail to render them ridiculous in case their attainments did not war- want the certificate. from the undeserved censure of those who have heretofore thought that college honours should of right take precedence of county or state licenses, and shall therefore, though at the risk of being tedious, offer some of the reasons which may very properly be urged in favour of divesting the diploma of the privileges which the laws of this State, at present, ac- cord to it. I am aware that there are those who will think, I am treading on ground that is hallowed, because enclosed by patents and prescriptions ; and that I am trespassing on rights presumed to belong exclusively to colleges : but, con- vinced that a measure of this kind will elevate the standard both of the degree and the license, I cannot be deterred by any considerations of a personal nature, from performing what, under existing circumstances, is an act of imperative duty. The degree of Doctor of JNledicine is_the highest honour known to our schools which is within reach of the student, however great maybe his talents or application; it, there- fore, claims to be considered as the best evidence of medical acquirement, and the surest passport to public confidence ;