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MEDICAL MEN AND THE WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION ACTS.
1420 medal) Edin.,
M.B. Bachelor.
Sydney (ad eugideni),
on
being
created
indeed, and that not only the labourer who follows
a
compensation, but, if gardener who is also to drive and who meets with a carriage employed of the lecture session at THE opening summer Brompton accident when engaged in the latter occupation. The Hospital for Consumption and Diseases of the Chest will be country labourer does not meet with many accidents delivered by Dr. J. Mitchell Bruce on Wednesday, May 22nd, which do not arise " out of and in the course of his employat 4 P.M. Subject: "On the Diagnosis, Prognosis, and ment," and it will readily be seen that the majority of accidents occurring to him for which a medical man is Treatment of Quiescent Tuberculosis." called in may become the subject of claims for compensa-
Knight
the
plough
we
may
-
meeting of the University Court held in Carmarthen May 10th Dr. Isambard Owen was for the seventh year in succession elected Senior Deputy Chancellor of the University of Wales. AT the
on
-
THE Metropolitan Counties Branch of the British Medical Association will hold a conversazione in the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, at 8.30 P.M., on Wednesday, June 12th. ___
AN extra meeting of the Pathological Society of London will be held at Oxford on Saturday, July 6th, upon the invitation of Sir John Burdon Sanderson and Dr. J. Ritchie.
THE newly-appointed Bishop of Oxford, the Very Rev. Francis Paget, D.D., Dean of Christ Church, is the second son of the late Sir James Paget, Bart., F.R.C.S. THE King has nominated Sir John Williams, Bart., M.D. Lond., to be a member of the General Medical Council for a term of five years. -
LIEUTENANT-COLONEL BABTIE, V.C., C.M.G., has been Assistant Director of the Army Medical Service.
temporarily appointed
___
DR. S. WEST has been appointed Joint Lecturer on Medicine at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, vice Sir Dyce Duck-
worth, resigned.
MEDICAL MEN AND THE WORKMEN’S COMPENSATION ACTS. I. THE Workmen’s Compensation Act of 1897 considerably increased the liability of the employer to his workman when the latter was accidentally injured in those trades to which it applies, and imposed duties upon medical practitioners in connexion with the assessment of the workman’s injuries beyond those naturally arising out of the ordinary summons to assist the injured in his home or the hospital. The scope of this Act has now been enormously widened by a recent statute which extends its benefits to the agricultural labourer, stating that it " shall apply to the employment of workmen in agriculture by any employer who ,habitually employs one or more workmen in such employment," while, to quote further from the new Act, "where any workman is employed by the same employer mainly in agricultural but partly or occasionally in other work, this Act shall apply also to the employment of the workmen in such other work," and " the expressionagriculture’ includes horticulture, forestry, and the use of land for any purpose of husbandry, inclusive of the keeping or breeding of live .stock, poultry, or bees and the growth of fruit and vegetables." From these definitions it will be seen that a workman in agriculture within the meaning of the Work- men’s Compensation Acts is a member of a very large class
The
new
agriculture comes
-
I, I
an
to
instance,
the
statute which protects the workman in into force on Jaly lst next, and it may be ot interest to the enlarged class of medical men who will now be called upon from time to time to consider certain provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Act of 1897 if we set out and comment briefly on those which most intimately concern the medical profession. Until the Act of 1897 was passed the medical man, as a rule, became concerned with an action arising out of a workman’s accident either because he had attended the injured man or because by his consent he had examined him on behalf of the employer. Under the Act we are discussing the employer to whom notice of an accident has been given by can an injured workman call upon the workman to submit himself to a medical man selected and paid by the employer, and further, after compensation has been awarded and while weekly payments are being made to the workman, the employer, or any person by whom the employer is entitled to be indemnified-as, for example, an insurer-can call upon the workman to submit himself to further examination either to a medical practitioner chosen and paid by the employer, or should the workman object to the medical practitioner or to the certificate given by him, then he may submit himself to one of the medical practitioners appointed for the purpose of the Act as medical referees. These are to be appointed by the Secretary of State and their expenses are to be paid out of moneys to be provided by Parliament. They have duties beyond those already indicated, for they may be called in when required by an arbitrator under the Act to report upon questions arising in the course of the arbitration. Many very difficult questions of law have arisen under the Workmen’s Compensation Acts, as they have under the Employers’ Liability Act. We need not consider these at’great length, but we shall indicate the scope of the Acts generally, as the medical man will be called in on many occasions by uneducated persons who in many cases will not be able to afford legal assistance. We have no desire to constitute the medical practitioner legal adviser to these, but he should be aware of the legal position of his patients so far as it affects his own and so far as it is readily ascertainable by him. Before 1880 the workman injured in the course of his employment had a right to compensation by his employer in very few cases indeed. Where the employer caused by his own negligence the injury of his workmen he might be compelled by an action at common law to compensate him, but he owed him no compensation, such as he would to a stranger, if the negligence of a fellow-worker of the injured man caused the mishap, and there were defences open to the employer with regard to the workman’s knowledge of the dangers of his employment and other matters that not go into. we need By the Employers’ Liability Act of 1880 the employer was made liable in certain cases which did not cover all accidents, or apply to all employments, such as where the accident results from a defect in the condition of ways, works, machinery, or plant, or from the negligence of a person appointed by the employer to superintend work, or of any foreman whose order, obeyed by the workman, has resulted in his injury. Under the Workmen’s Compensation Act, in addition to his previous liability at common law or under the Employers’ Liability Act, the employer is liable if in any employment to which the Act applies "personal injury by accident arising out of and in course of the employment is caused to a workman," unless the accident is caused by the "serious and wilful misconduct" of the workman, and with the following further proviso, which directly involves the evidence of the medical man, that "the employer shall not be liable under this Act in respect of any injury which does not disable the workman for a period of. at least two weeks from earning full wages at the work at which he was employed "-that is to say, before the workman can claim compensation there must
tion.
SIR WILLIAM MAC COHMAC, Bart., K.C.B., K.C.V.O., has been elected a Foreign Associate Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, the oldest medical body in America, having been founded by Benjamin Rush and other distinguished men in 1787.
will be entitled
suggest
1421 be a period of 14 days, not counting the day on which the accident happens or the day on which the workman returns
work, during which he is disabled, and consequently slight injuries are not subjects for compensation. We need hardly point out that the question of the workman’s inability to earn full wages during a precisely defined period is one which must largely depend on medical evidence, and that this provision of the law may well be borne in mind by the medical man while he is treating an accident that is to full
otherwise within the Act.
In addition to the above suggested reforms of the Medical Acts, we would draw attention to the desirability of the Council of the College, in the public interest, takings steps with a view to an amendment of the law relating to the sale ot drugs so as to compel the vendors of all patent medicines and proprietary nostrums to state on the package or bottle containing the alleged remedy the exact composition. In earnestly recommending the serious attention of the Council to the urgent necessity that exists for the above-mentioned reforms, we desire to thank the Council for the opportunity thus afforded for placing these views before them. And we have the honour to remain, Your obedient servants,
GEORGE BROWN,
GEO. DANFORD THOMAS. at the conclusion of the Workmen’s Compenfurther find that it before we Act of 1897 sation The Council passed the following resolution :going applies to " employment in or about a railway, factory, mine, The Council are not prepared to promote the alterations suggested quarry, or engineering work, or in or about any building in paragraphs 1, 2, and 3. With regard to paragraph 4 the Council which exceeds 30 feet in height, and is either being con- approve the principle that no unregistered person should be allowed practise medicine or surgery for gain, and if the General Medical structed or repaired by means of a scaffolding, or being to Council should deem it expedient to apply for an alteration of the which or on driven demolished, machinery by steam, Medical Acts to that effect the Council would support their action. water, or other mechanical power is being used for the Regarding paragraph 5 the Council deem it inexpedient at the present With regard to the suggestion that vendors of patent medicines purpose of the construction, repair, or demolition thereof." time. proprietary nostrums should be compelled to state on the package If to this definition is added that of the workman in and or bottle containing the alleged remedy the exact composition the agriculture from the Act of 1900 given above, the medical Council are of opinion that it does not rest with them to initiate practitioner will have a general idea of the class of case in proposals for the amendment of the law relating to the sale of drugs. which his services may be required under these two statutes. Mr. R. J. Godlee was appointed a delegate from the He need not trouble himself with the legal combats that College to the Congress on Tuberculosis to be held in London have raged over the construction of almost every phrase in July next. which we have quoted that purports to limit the accidents The President was re-appointed the representative of the for which compeneation is to be made, but he may re- College on the Council of the Jenner Institute of Preventive member that some of the most important actions arise Medicine. where - death has resulted and where there are deThe report of the Committee on the proposed changes in pendants to be compensated, and that in these especially the regulations for the Licence in dental surgery was received, medical testimony may be of some effect in deter- and it was referred to the Dental Board of Examiners to mining precisely the manner in which the accident occurred, revise the regulations. The chief alterations will be that at and, further, that the question whether there was " serious the final examination the marks in anatomy and physiology and wilful misconduct"on the part of the workman is one and in surgery and pathology will be independent of those in of vital importance to his claim, or that of his dependants, dental anatomy and surgery, and that the candidate may be for compensation. We need hardly say with reference to rejected in one part of the examination without being this class of evidence that the less a medical witness allows rejected in the other; and further, that candidates will be himself to be drawn into formulating speculative theories and permitted to take the general anatomical and surgical and the more strictly he confines himself to straightforward the dental parts of the examination separately. Moreover, statements of fact, the better his evidence will stand courses of lectures on dental bacteriology and dental criticism by a hostile advocate. materia medica will be added to the curriculum. Mr. J. HARDIE moved that it be referred to the Committee of Management to consider and to report upon the desirability of it being required of candidates for the Membership of the College to furnish certificates of having been ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OF taught the administration of anaesthetics. The subject was
Glancing
ENGLAND.
referred.
so
College accepted with thanks a portrait by Mr. T. B. AN ordinary meeting of the Council was held on May 9th, Kennington of the late Dr. Richard Neale, presented by the Neale Testimonial Fund Committee. the President, Sir WILLIAM MACCORMAC, Bart., K.C.B., Sir Frederick Treves, chairman of the Library ComK.c.v.a., being in the chair. mittee, presented to the College on behalf of Sir William Mr. Priestley Smith and Major Ronald Ross were intro- Mac Cormac, the President, an album containing autograph duced and after signing the by-laws and making the required photographs of all the celebrities attending the International declaration they were admitted Fellows of the College. Medical Congress held in London in 1881. These photoMr. William McAdam Eccles was introduced and the graphs had been collected by Sir William Mac Cormac, the President handed to him the Jacksonian Prize, together with honorary secretary-general to the Congress. a document declaratory of the award. The thanks of the Council were voted for the gift. On the recommendation of the Library Committee it was The next meeting of the Council will be on June 20th. resolved to provide an additional store-room for books in the basement of the College. The
The Committee on the annual report of the Council presented a report on the following letter from Mr. George Brown and Dr. Danford Thomas.
THE PRINCE OF WALES’S HOSPITAL FUND FOR LONDON.
To the President and Members
of the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. GENTLEMEN,-In accordance with the request of your Council as expressed in your letter of December ’,17th last, we beg to submit the following points in regard to which we are of opinion the Medical Acts require amendment, viz. :.
1. Alteration in the constitution of the General Medical Council to provide that the representatives of the Universities and Medical Corporations be elected respectively bv their medical graduates and diplomates residing within the United Kingdom. 2. That admission to the Medical Register shall be obtained only by those who have passed the examinations of a Conjoint Board as instituted bv the General Medical Council for each division of the kingdom. All the medical corporations in each division to be represented on the respective Divisional Conjoint Board. 3. That in lieu of the present method of registration there shall be an annual registration, the fee for which shall not exceed twenty
shillings.
4. That no unregistered person shall practise medicine or surgery or any branch thereof for gain, or use any medical or surgical title or titles calculated to lead the public to believe that the person using such title or titles is a legally qualified medical practitioner. 5. That the practising of medicine or surgery or any branch thereof by any company or association whose members are wholly or in part unregistered persons be absolutely prohibited.
A MEETING of the General Council of this fund was held May 10th, at the residence of the Duke of Fife, 15, Portman-square, W., his Grace occupying the chair on behalf of H.R.H. the Duke of Cornwall and York. The DUKE of FIFE announced the resignation of the presidency of the fund by the King, who would become its patron, and the acceptance of the presidency of the Fund by the Duke of Cornwall and York. Mr. H. C. SMITH read the report of the General Council for the year ending 1900 which recorded an increase of .E3000 in the total receipts for the year. Excluding the initial start in the Jubilee year the figures showed continuous progress-viz. : 1898, 39,272 ; 1899, 8,536 ; and 1900, .E51,549. Although the receipts were only E3000 in excess of the previous year it was felt that the claims of the hospitals justified a larger distribution than before, and it was decided to award to the hospitals and convalescent on
,
M.B. Bachelor.
Sydney (ad eugideni),
on
being
created
indeed, and that not only the labourer who follows
a
compensation, but, if gardener who is also to drive and who meets with a carriage employed of the lecture session at THE opening summer Brompton accident when engaged in the latter occupation. The Hospital for Consumption and Diseases of the Chest will be country labourer does not meet with many accidents delivered by Dr. J. Mitchell Bruce on Wednesday, May 22nd, which do not arise " out of and in the course of his employat 4 P.M. Subject: "On the Diagnosis, Prognosis, and ment," and it will readily be seen that the majority of accidents occurring to him for which a medical man is Treatment of Quiescent Tuberculosis." called in may become the subject of claims for compensa-
Knight
the
plough
we
may
-
meeting of the University Court held in Carmarthen May 10th Dr. Isambard Owen was for the seventh year in succession elected Senior Deputy Chancellor of the University of Wales. AT the
on
-
THE Metropolitan Counties Branch of the British Medical Association will hold a conversazione in the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, at 8.30 P.M., on Wednesday, June 12th. ___
AN extra meeting of the Pathological Society of London will be held at Oxford on Saturday, July 6th, upon the invitation of Sir John Burdon Sanderson and Dr. J. Ritchie.
THE newly-appointed Bishop of Oxford, the Very Rev. Francis Paget, D.D., Dean of Christ Church, is the second son of the late Sir James Paget, Bart., F.R.C.S. THE King has nominated Sir John Williams, Bart., M.D. Lond., to be a member of the General Medical Council for a term of five years. -
LIEUTENANT-COLONEL BABTIE, V.C., C.M.G., has been Assistant Director of the Army Medical Service.
temporarily appointed
___
DR. S. WEST has been appointed Joint Lecturer on Medicine at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, vice Sir Dyce Duck-
worth, resigned.
MEDICAL MEN AND THE WORKMEN’S COMPENSATION ACTS. I. THE Workmen’s Compensation Act of 1897 considerably increased the liability of the employer to his workman when the latter was accidentally injured in those trades to which it applies, and imposed duties upon medical practitioners in connexion with the assessment of the workman’s injuries beyond those naturally arising out of the ordinary summons to assist the injured in his home or the hospital. The scope of this Act has now been enormously widened by a recent statute which extends its benefits to the agricultural labourer, stating that it " shall apply to the employment of workmen in agriculture by any employer who ,habitually employs one or more workmen in such employment," while, to quote further from the new Act, "where any workman is employed by the same employer mainly in agricultural but partly or occasionally in other work, this Act shall apply also to the employment of the workmen in such other work," and " the expressionagriculture’ includes horticulture, forestry, and the use of land for any purpose of husbandry, inclusive of the keeping or breeding of live .stock, poultry, or bees and the growth of fruit and vegetables." From these definitions it will be seen that a workman in agriculture within the meaning of the Work- men’s Compensation Acts is a member of a very large class
The
new
agriculture comes
-
I, I
an
to
instance,
the
statute which protects the workman in into force on Jaly lst next, and it may be ot interest to the enlarged class of medical men who will now be called upon from time to time to consider certain provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Act of 1897 if we set out and comment briefly on those which most intimately concern the medical profession. Until the Act of 1897 was passed the medical man, as a rule, became concerned with an action arising out of a workman’s accident either because he had attended the injured man or because by his consent he had examined him on behalf of the employer. Under the Act we are discussing the employer to whom notice of an accident has been given by can an injured workman call upon the workman to submit himself to a medical man selected and paid by the employer, and further, after compensation has been awarded and while weekly payments are being made to the workman, the employer, or any person by whom the employer is entitled to be indemnified-as, for example, an insurer-can call upon the workman to submit himself to further examination either to a medical practitioner chosen and paid by the employer, or should the workman object to the medical practitioner or to the certificate given by him, then he may submit himself to one of the medical practitioners appointed for the purpose of the Act as medical referees. These are to be appointed by the Secretary of State and their expenses are to be paid out of moneys to be provided by Parliament. They have duties beyond those already indicated, for they may be called in when required by an arbitrator under the Act to report upon questions arising in the course of the arbitration. Many very difficult questions of law have arisen under the Workmen’s Compensation Acts, as they have under the Employers’ Liability Act. We need not consider these at’great length, but we shall indicate the scope of the Acts generally, as the medical man will be called in on many occasions by uneducated persons who in many cases will not be able to afford legal assistance. We have no desire to constitute the medical practitioner legal adviser to these, but he should be aware of the legal position of his patients so far as it affects his own and so far as it is readily ascertainable by him. Before 1880 the workman injured in the course of his employment had a right to compensation by his employer in very few cases indeed. Where the employer caused by his own negligence the injury of his workmen he might be compelled by an action at common law to compensate him, but he owed him no compensation, such as he would to a stranger, if the negligence of a fellow-worker of the injured man caused the mishap, and there were defences open to the employer with regard to the workman’s knowledge of the dangers of his employment and other matters that not go into. we need By the Employers’ Liability Act of 1880 the employer was made liable in certain cases which did not cover all accidents, or apply to all employments, such as where the accident results from a defect in the condition of ways, works, machinery, or plant, or from the negligence of a person appointed by the employer to superintend work, or of any foreman whose order, obeyed by the workman, has resulted in his injury. Under the Workmen’s Compensation Act, in addition to his previous liability at common law or under the Employers’ Liability Act, the employer is liable if in any employment to which the Act applies "personal injury by accident arising out of and in course of the employment is caused to a workman," unless the accident is caused by the "serious and wilful misconduct" of the workman, and with the following further proviso, which directly involves the evidence of the medical man, that "the employer shall not be liable under this Act in respect of any injury which does not disable the workman for a period of. at least two weeks from earning full wages at the work at which he was employed "-that is to say, before the workman can claim compensation there must
tion.
SIR WILLIAM MAC COHMAC, Bart., K.C.B., K.C.V.O., has been elected a Foreign Associate Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, the oldest medical body in America, having been founded by Benjamin Rush and other distinguished men in 1787.
will be entitled
suggest
1421 be a period of 14 days, not counting the day on which the accident happens or the day on which the workman returns
work, during which he is disabled, and consequently slight injuries are not subjects for compensation. We need hardly point out that the question of the workman’s inability to earn full wages during a precisely defined period is one which must largely depend on medical evidence, and that this provision of the law may well be borne in mind by the medical man while he is treating an accident that is to full
otherwise within the Act.
In addition to the above suggested reforms of the Medical Acts, we would draw attention to the desirability of the Council of the College, in the public interest, takings steps with a view to an amendment of the law relating to the sale ot drugs so as to compel the vendors of all patent medicines and proprietary nostrums to state on the package or bottle containing the alleged remedy the exact composition. In earnestly recommending the serious attention of the Council to the urgent necessity that exists for the above-mentioned reforms, we desire to thank the Council for the opportunity thus afforded for placing these views before them. And we have the honour to remain, Your obedient servants,
GEORGE BROWN,
GEO. DANFORD THOMAS. at the conclusion of the Workmen’s Compenfurther find that it before we Act of 1897 sation The Council passed the following resolution :going applies to " employment in or about a railway, factory, mine, The Council are not prepared to promote the alterations suggested quarry, or engineering work, or in or about any building in paragraphs 1, 2, and 3. With regard to paragraph 4 the Council which exceeds 30 feet in height, and is either being con- approve the principle that no unregistered person should be allowed practise medicine or surgery for gain, and if the General Medical structed or repaired by means of a scaffolding, or being to Council should deem it expedient to apply for an alteration of the which or on driven demolished, machinery by steam, Medical Acts to that effect the Council would support their action. water, or other mechanical power is being used for the Regarding paragraph 5 the Council deem it inexpedient at the present With regard to the suggestion that vendors of patent medicines purpose of the construction, repair, or demolition thereof." time. proprietary nostrums should be compelled to state on the package If to this definition is added that of the workman in and or bottle containing the alleged remedy the exact composition the agriculture from the Act of 1900 given above, the medical Council are of opinion that it does not rest with them to initiate practitioner will have a general idea of the class of case in proposals for the amendment of the law relating to the sale of drugs. which his services may be required under these two statutes. Mr. R. J. Godlee was appointed a delegate from the He need not trouble himself with the legal combats that College to the Congress on Tuberculosis to be held in London have raged over the construction of almost every phrase in July next. which we have quoted that purports to limit the accidents The President was re-appointed the representative of the for which compeneation is to be made, but he may re- College on the Council of the Jenner Institute of Preventive member that some of the most important actions arise Medicine. where - death has resulted and where there are deThe report of the Committee on the proposed changes in pendants to be compensated, and that in these especially the regulations for the Licence in dental surgery was received, medical testimony may be of some effect in deter- and it was referred to the Dental Board of Examiners to mining precisely the manner in which the accident occurred, revise the regulations. The chief alterations will be that at and, further, that the question whether there was " serious the final examination the marks in anatomy and physiology and wilful misconduct"on the part of the workman is one and in surgery and pathology will be independent of those in of vital importance to his claim, or that of his dependants, dental anatomy and surgery, and that the candidate may be for compensation. We need hardly say with reference to rejected in one part of the examination without being this class of evidence that the less a medical witness allows rejected in the other; and further, that candidates will be himself to be drawn into formulating speculative theories and permitted to take the general anatomical and surgical and the more strictly he confines himself to straightforward the dental parts of the examination separately. Moreover, statements of fact, the better his evidence will stand courses of lectures on dental bacteriology and dental criticism by a hostile advocate. materia medica will be added to the curriculum. Mr. J. HARDIE moved that it be referred to the Committee of Management to consider and to report upon the desirability of it being required of candidates for the Membership of the College to furnish certificates of having been ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OF taught the administration of anaesthetics. The subject was
Glancing
ENGLAND.
referred.
so
College accepted with thanks a portrait by Mr. T. B. AN ordinary meeting of the Council was held on May 9th, Kennington of the late Dr. Richard Neale, presented by the Neale Testimonial Fund Committee. the President, Sir WILLIAM MACCORMAC, Bart., K.C.B., Sir Frederick Treves, chairman of the Library ComK.c.v.a., being in the chair. mittee, presented to the College on behalf of Sir William Mr. Priestley Smith and Major Ronald Ross were intro- Mac Cormac, the President, an album containing autograph duced and after signing the by-laws and making the required photographs of all the celebrities attending the International declaration they were admitted Fellows of the College. Medical Congress held in London in 1881. These photoMr. William McAdam Eccles was introduced and the graphs had been collected by Sir William Mac Cormac, the President handed to him the Jacksonian Prize, together with honorary secretary-general to the Congress. a document declaratory of the award. The thanks of the Council were voted for the gift. On the recommendation of the Library Committee it was The next meeting of the Council will be on June 20th. resolved to provide an additional store-room for books in the basement of the College. The
The Committee on the annual report of the Council presented a report on the following letter from Mr. George Brown and Dr. Danford Thomas.
THE PRINCE OF WALES’S HOSPITAL FUND FOR LONDON.
To the President and Members
of the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. GENTLEMEN,-In accordance with the request of your Council as expressed in your letter of December ’,17th last, we beg to submit the following points in regard to which we are of opinion the Medical Acts require amendment, viz. :.
1. Alteration in the constitution of the General Medical Council to provide that the representatives of the Universities and Medical Corporations be elected respectively bv their medical graduates and diplomates residing within the United Kingdom. 2. That admission to the Medical Register shall be obtained only by those who have passed the examinations of a Conjoint Board as instituted bv the General Medical Council for each division of the kingdom. All the medical corporations in each division to be represented on the respective Divisional Conjoint Board. 3. That in lieu of the present method of registration there shall be an annual registration, the fee for which shall not exceed twenty
shillings.
4. That no unregistered person shall practise medicine or surgery or any branch thereof for gain, or use any medical or surgical title or titles calculated to lead the public to believe that the person using such title or titles is a legally qualified medical practitioner. 5. That the practising of medicine or surgery or any branch thereof by any company or association whose members are wholly or in part unregistered persons be absolutely prohibited.
A MEETING of the General Council of this fund was held May 10th, at the residence of the Duke of Fife, 15, Portman-square, W., his Grace occupying the chair on behalf of H.R.H. the Duke of Cornwall and York. The DUKE of FIFE announced the resignation of the presidency of the fund by the King, who would become its patron, and the acceptance of the presidency of the Fund by the Duke of Cornwall and York. Mr. H. C. SMITH read the report of the General Council for the year ending 1900 which recorded an increase of .E3000 in the total receipts for the year. Excluding the initial start in the Jubilee year the figures showed continuous progress-viz. : 1898, 39,272 ; 1899, 8,536 ; and 1900, .E51,549. Although the receipts were only E3000 in excess of the previous year it was felt that the claims of the hospitals justified a larger distribution than before, and it was decided to award to the hospitals and convalescent on
,