The reciprocal duties of the medical profession and the community : being the inaugural address delivered at the sixty-sixth annual meeting of the British Medical Association / by Sir T. Grainger Stewart.

Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The reciprocal duties of the medical profession and the community : being the inaugural address delivered at the sixty-sixth annual meeting of the British Medical Association / by Sir T. Grainger Stewart. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    admitted by the Bishop of London or the Dean of St. Paul’s and a board of advisers or assessors consisting of four doctors of physic in regard to medicine, or for surgery other persons expert in that faculty. And when once the College had taken this preliminary step it was ordained that the Churchmen should call in as their advisers four of those that had been already approved. In Henry’s enactment, how- ever, the rights of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge were expressly reserved. So it came about that Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons and the great universities had to undertake a definite share in the duty of admitting members to the profession. The Medical Act of 1858, which introduced so many improvements working in the lines common to British legislation, did not attempt to start a brand-new mode of admission to the profession, but rather, recognising that many portals already existed, kept these portals open and regulated and modified them as seemed best. Some have advocated the establishment of a single portal, conceiving that thereby a more perfectly equal system might be attained ; but I think that the country was wisely guided when it adopted the plan it did, and that for many reasons, of which I shall mention one or two. It was better not to change, because the portals were doing, or were capable of being made to do, good and efficient work ; because, while it is essential that every portal must attain a certain minimum standard, it is most desirable that there should be portals of various degrees, some conferring a qualification humbler and more easily attained, others a higher one and more difficult to win ; and because I believe that it surpasses the wit of man to devise a method whereby, for the whole United Kingdom or each of its divisions, a just, equitable, and trust- worthy single portal could be organised and worked.