Report on the increase in the teaching and examining work of the professors of the medical faculty and on the justice and expediency of increased remuneration by fees or otherwise. May, 1874.

  • University of Edinburgh.
Date:
1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the increase in the teaching and examining work of the professors of the medical faculty and on the justice and expediency of increased remuneration by fees or otherwise. May, 1874. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    advantages derived from practice in some degree compensate for deficiencies in the emoluments of the chairs, and, conse- quently, such Professors are not expected or required to devote more than a part of their time to University work. We must therefore consider how much time is necessarUy occupied by University work. This is certainly much greater than it was even a few years ago, owing partly to the increase of work already explained, and partly to the great expansion of every branch of medical knowledge, and of each of the sciences bear- ing on medical and surgical practice. It is every Professor's duty not only to keep himself acquainted with the discoveries made in his subject by others, so that he may teach it fully, but to advance it himself by original researches. The time available for medical practice is thus very seriously diminished, and with it, of course, the income derivable from such practice. This particularly affects the Professors teach- ing Clinical Medicine. These facts will serve to elucidate the question of the justice and expediency of increasing the remuneration of the Pro- fessors, which may be considered from two points of view— 1st, in reference to the present Professors; and, 2d, in reference to the future prospects of the medical school. 1st, It certainly seems just that any official who has additional work imposed upon him beyond that contemplated at the time of his accepting office, should receive a suitable increase of re- muneration by salary or otherwise. The Professors in the Medical Faculty (with the exception of the Professor of Anatomy) receive salaries, which were given them in commu- tation of their shares of graduation fees, and which may, therefore, be held to be paid to them as examiners for degrees. Until 1868 there were no Clinical examinations, and when these were instituted some provision should have been made for paying the examiners. 2d, But a consideration of the future prospects of the medical school furnishes a safer means of deciding the ques- tion. If matters remain as they are, is it likely that the best men will become candidates for strictly Medical and Surgical Chairs ? There seems no reason to fear, at all events in the immediate future, that there will be a failure of eligible