THE PRESENT COURT OF EXAMINERS AT THE HALL, AND ANY FUTURE BOARDS.

530

ROYAL

BELGRAVE LYING-IN INSTITUTION.

tion upon the conditions which he has proposed, or upon any are similar to them. Letters containing only the

terms which words,-" I

’

solemnly and decidedly protest against the plan " which you have proposed for the incorporation of the General " Practitioners, and against the passing of the Medical Bill as it 41 is now constructed," might be addressed to Sir JAMES GBAHAM, at the Home-Office, London, and forwarded without a day’s delay. Meantime, petitions, comprising similar protests, should be sent for presentation to the House of Commons, and earnest communications ought to be transmitted instantly to the members of that House. Notwithstanding all the disasters which the profession has suffered, and the discomfitures to which the General Practitioners have been exposed, they may still succeed in the conflict in which they have so long been engaged. But all the powers of the profession should be immediately united against the present obnoxious and abominable scheme of the Government. Infinitely better would it be that the General Practitioners who at present constitute the Court of Examiners at the Hall, should continue to exercise their present functions, altogether free from any interference on the part of the College of Physicians, and the Council of the College of Surgeons, than that an inferior corporation of General Fractitioners should be established, the stratagem being, that the candidates going to it should first be examined by a joint Board of physicians and SU1’geons, and that the licentiates leaving it should, at the end of four years, ascend, as surgeons and physicians, into what Sir JAMES GRAHAM designated as the " two superior Colleges." In the whole of this wily and disreputable scheme the labours of open enemies, as well, we fear, as the traitorous acts of false friends, are clearly perceptible. But we are still inspired with a confident hope and belief that the members of the great body of our profession, who, throughout the whole of this struggle of many years’ duration, have been actuated by the highest principles and the purest motives, will yet obtain for their efforts a triumphant termination. THE PRESENT COURT OF EXAMINERS AT THE HALL, AND ANY FUTURE BOARDS. INSTEAD of repealing the APOTHECARIES’ ACT, and creating a NEW CORPORATION of General Practitioners, which is avowedly, in law and in practice, to be an institution inferior to the Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons, it would be infinitely preferable to alter that Act, so as to enable the General Practitioners to elect the Board of Examiners at Apothecaries’ Hall. That Board has already the power of framing a complete curriculum of education for medical students, and instituting the most comprehensive examination in medicine, and of prosecuting all unqualified medical practitioners,-powers far surpassing any which can be exercised by the existing Colleges. In transforming the Examiners of the existing Hall into a new Hall, those public officers are, it appears to us, about to be emasculated. all the medical institutions for the relief of the sick poor, with the exception of the union infirmaries, and a few endowed hospitals, are supported by voluntary contributions,

IN

England,

amply are their expenses provided for. Owing to this circumstance, there is no external revising body, no superior power, to which their directors are amenable, with the exception of public opinion. Now, when we find that the small knot of originators or patrons who in reality govern institutions of this description, (however numerous the governors may apparently be,) and most

despise public opinion, and set at defiance rumours that are detrimental to the honour and character of the charity, it behoves us to keep our eyes constantly upon them, and always to scrutinize their conduct very closely. Indeed, this contempt of public

opinion is so foreign to the ardent desire for popular approbation generally shown by the ruling powers of these bodies, that when adopted, it forms very strong primâ facie evidence that all is not right. Such, indeed, is the impression calculated to be produced by various facts which have latterly transpired with reference to the " Royal Belgrave Lying-In Institution," a charity" liberally supported, it appears, by the wealthy inhabitants of Pimlico, but which has lately become unfavourably known to the metropolis at large by the manner in which it has figured in the police reports of Queen-square. In January last, Mr. WAKLEY held an inquest, in Chelsea, on the body of a child that had died under peculiar circumstances. "

midwife’s order for her confinement residing in that neighbourhood, but on the lady husband applying, at the last moment, to the midwife, the latter refused to attend, on the plea that she had not received a previous notice. The attendance of the parish surgeon was at last obtained, but when that gentleman arrived, the woman had been delivered for some time, and the child was lying dead at her side. These facts becoming known, through the inquest, they excited considerable attention in Chelsea, and Mr. RYDER, the chairman of the Board of Guardians of St. Luke’s, took the matter up. On making inquiries, Mr. RYDER found that there were several other midwives who had not been paid during a considerable lapse of time, and that the names of various ladies, noblemen, and gentlemen, had been inserted in the list of patrons and members of the Committee without their consent, or retained subsequently to their consent having been withdrawn. This fact was substantiated by numerous letters from the parties themselves. Finding such to be the case, Mr. RYDER applied to the police magistrate at Queen-square, (Mr. BuRRELL,) for his advice, and laid the entire matter before him. Mr. BuRRELL, after taking a few days to consider, promised Mr. RYDER to grant a summons against the managers, either for conspiracy, or for obtaining charitable contributions under false pretences. A solicitor, Mr. SALOMONS, who attended at the court, (March 19th,) stated that he should be quite prepared to meet the charges, that the officers of the Institution did not shrink from inquiry, and that a meeting of the governors had been convened for the 29th of May next, in Willis’s rooms, in order to take into consideration the malicious report" that had been circulated respectirg the institution. He did not, however, attempt to refute the charges that had been brought before the magistrate. With respect to the distant period fixed for the meeting, Mr. SALOMONS stated, that " he had advised its being held ear" lier, when the accounts, which were now being prepared, " would be submitted to the inspection of the subscribers, and he " hoped they would prove satisfactory to them; of other persons " they were quite independent, as the desire was to satisfy sub" scribers." The police magistrate subsequently refused the summons, the evidence not appearing to him to be sufficiently conclusive to warrant its being issued. We are not aware that the managers of this charity, whoever they may be, have even attempted, since this eaposi was made, to justify themselves in the eyes of the public against the very The mother had obtained

from

a

of rank

a

531 serious charges that have been brought

against them; or endeavoured to explain the fact of their having used the names of many individuals without their sanction. All reply is deferred until the meeting. Such supineness either proves their cause to be a very bad one, or shows an inexplicable indifference to the opinion of the public, by which, after all, the institution must stand or fall. We do not understand the assertion of the solicitor for the Society, " that it has no account to give to any one but the subscribers." A charity to which the

are openly invited to contribute, certain considered, extent, as public property, and the community at large ’have a right to know how matters are conducted therein. We shall keep our eyes on this " charitable institution," and when the meeting has taken place, shall analyze its composition and proceedings. Meantime the thanks of the public are due to Mr. RYDER for his praiseworthy exertions in the " cause of the poor applicants to the charity."

may be

to

public

a

SUMMARY ANALYSIS OF THE BILL. TIMES

of Thursday, May 8th.] moving that the Physic and Surgery Bill be committed, observed that his object was to introduce into it On a former occasion he had some very important alterations. expressed a desire to adjust the differences then existing between the great body of general practitioners and the governing body of the College of Surgeons. He was sorry now to inform the

[From THE

"

Sir J. GRAHAM, in

House that he was afraid that those two bodies were irreconcilable. The College of Surgeons was in possession of a charter giving them great privileges, great property, and high character. The general practitioners were a powerful body, and he believed that if you were to give them the power of returning members to represent them in the College of Surgeons, the representative power would soon reflect the character of the constituent body, and become the governing power of the College. Though he might incur censure for the declaration, he must say that he could not conceive the occurrence of any greater misfortune to the medical world, or to the British community, than that degradation of the science which would take place if the College of Surgeons were to be transferred to Apothecaries’ Hall; and he was afraid that if the 12,000 or 14,000 general practitioners were each to have a voice in the choice of the governing body of the College of Surgeons, they would displace the pure surgeons from it, and would comert it into an Apothecaries’ HalL On the other hand he confessed that it did appear to him, that although all the objections of the general practitioners to the College of Surgeons and to the College of Physicians might not be well-founded, certain precautions which they desired ought to be taken. They stated that the physicians and surgeons had an interest in degrading the general practitioners, because when the level of the general practitioners was reduced, the condition of the physicians and surgeons would b’o) exalted. Having thus said that some precautions should be taken on this point, and that the differences between the

posed that in all cases the student in medicine should first undergo examination by one board, and that the standard of competence should be common to all. He likewise proposed that there should be three distinct incorporations-one of physicians, one of surgeons, and another of general practitioners. He proposed that no person should be examined as a general practitioner until he attained the age of twenty-two years. He then proposed that the College of Physicians and the College of Surgeons should form a joint board of examiners. The candidate for the profession would have to appear before a board of six physicians and of six surgeons, to be appointed by each of those professions respectively. In conjunction with the Council of Health, this board of examiners should have power to examine and decide upon the merits of the different candidates who came before them. He then proposed that the College of General Practitioners should appoint another board of examiners, consisting exclusively of general practitioners; and that if a student wished to be a general practitioner he should go before the board of general practitioners for examination, if the board of physicians and surgeons had granted him a liceat. As to those students who wished to practise as surgeons and physicians, he proposed that, when they had attained the age of twenty-six years, those who wished to be surgeons should be examined at the College of Surgeons, and those who wished to be physicians, at the College of Physicians. He had not come to the decision of incorporating a College of General Practitioners without the concurrence of the Apothecaries’ Company, which, in the most handsome manner, had declared its willingness to surrender all

its existing powers. There would therefore be three medical colleges in England and Wales. In the Bill which he now sought to amend, he proposed to repeal the Apothecaries’ Act, and by that measure to put an end to the five years’ apprenticeship, which he considered derogatory to a liberal profession. He would retain the power of prosecution given by the Apothecaries’ Act of 1815, and would transfer it intact to the new college of General Practitioners. It had been proposed to make some alteration in the constitution of the College of Health. Some persons were of opinion that the elective power by which some of its members were chosen should be changed, and that the power of nomination should be transferred to the Crown, under certain restrictions. He did not intend to propose any such alteration, but would leave it to the House to make it in committee if it so thought fit. He adhered, however, to the principle of the Bill as it then stood. He proposed that two of the general practitioners, chosen by the council of that college, should be members of the council of health. He also thought that the University of London should be represented in that council, and he wished to introduce a clause constituting the chancellor and vice-chancellor of that university, members of it. He then alluded to the exempting clause in his present Bill with respect to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. He was

happy

to

say that

an

arrangement had been made

College Physicians and those two learned tioners on the other, were irreconcilable, he concluded that it bodies, by which, though the exempting clause would still be He then was indispensably necessary to incorporate the body of general retained in the Bill, it would be rendered inoperative. minor of the to the in alterations details the Such an him proceeded explain practitioners. incorporation would afford great described and how the afterwards general practitioners facility in the attainment of an object to which he attached great Bill, importance-namely, that the entrance into the profession should were to be registered, so as to reserve to them all the privileges be through one portal alone, whatever might be the department which they possessed at present. He proposed, on the present to go into committee pro forma, to have the Bill, as to which the student might afterwards devote himself. He pro-I occasion, physicians and

surgeons

on

the

one

hand, and the general practi-

between the

of