Suggestions for the consideration of the College Committee of the ... town-council, concerning the medical curriculum of the University of Edinburgh, &c. / [by James Sanders].

Date:
[1833]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Suggestions for the consideration of the College Committee of the ... town-council, concerning the medical curriculum of the University of Edinburgh, &c. / [by James Sanders]. 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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    pointed either as a physician or surgeon should be able both to practise and to teach, that he may instruct those who go the rounds along with him respecting the nature of every case, and the object of every prescription, and at stated times explain candidly and fully to them assembled, the motives which govern his procedure. No other than the man who conducts the treatment can perform this duty ; the arrangements hitherto acted on are of a very different character; and this is the cause that no tale thrice told was ever less instructive or more soporific than a clinical lec- ture generally is. <c To accomplish the desired end, each physician and surgeon of the Infirmary must be an authorized teacher, and the certified attendance on his lectures must qualify, and be admitted accordingly by the examinators, either of the University, or of the Royal College of Surgeons. <e But it would not be wise to bestow these privileges, unless the system of direction were remodelled, since, as things are, the situation of physician or surgeon rendered profitable, would soon be converted into part of the patri- monial estate of some provident personage.’'’ It appears to us that the rate of fees should be taken un- der consideration. Nothing can be more clear than that the fee for the Summer Course of three months should not be so high as that of the Winter Course of six months. In the year 1812, the fee of each medical class was in- creased from three to four guineas, upon the plea that all the articles of life were then of an exorbitant price ; but now, from the fall in the value of property of every kind, no reason can be urged why the fees should not be accommo- dated to the change of circumstances. We would advise, that for the course of six months, the fee be henceforth £3 : 3s., and for the course of three months, £2 : 2s.; and that the apparently trifling, though really an- noying surcharges made by the professors should be entirely prohibited.