Report of the Parliamentary Committee of the Loyal National Repeal Association on the Bill for regulating the profession of physic & surgery [proposed by Sir James Graham], with observations on medical education / [Sir John Gray].

  • Gray, John, Sir, 1816-1875
Date:
1845
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Parliamentary Committee of the Loyal National Repeal Association on the Bill for regulating the profession of physic & surgery [proposed by Sir James Graham], with observations on medical education / [Sir John Gray]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    continuence of this privelege. But the vast body of apo- thecaries depend mainly upon their prescribing practice, and the operation of clauses (31 & 34) will be, to deprive the Irish apothecary of a great portion of his compoun¬ ding practice, and of the entire of his general and pre¬ scribing practice. Their effect will be even more disastrous to the Irish apothecary, v/ho may reside in a rural district. His practice, because of his isolated position, is necessarily confined altogether to prescribing and the compounding of his own prescriptions; and should these clauses become law, he will be totally deprived of his professional subsis¬ tence. I would here remark, that by the provisions of the bill brought in last session, by Sir James Graham, it was proposed to place the Irish apothecary on that equality, as regards registration, with the English apo¬ thecary, to which his education and professional skill entitle him. But the registration provisions of the present bill, appear to be based on the principle that while the peculiar rights of the English apothecary should be secured to as large an extent as is consistent with the general scheme of the measure, and new legal rights added, to compensate for the privileges withdrawn, the rights of the Irish apothecary should be totally annihilated. If we look to the history of the three classes of the pro¬ fession, we will see no grounds existing why in so compre¬ hensive a measure as that now introduced, having for its object the re-organization and consolidation of the profes¬ sion—the Irish apothecaries should be excluded from all participation in the proposed benefits, and driven without the professional pale. Their act of incorporation dates farther back by nine years than does the charter of the Royal College of Surgeons in England, and is four and twenty years more ancient than is the act which requires that the apothecaries of England should be men of educa¬ tion. For nearly a century the Irish apothecaries have been recognised by the Irish statute law as medical practi¬ tioners, and legislated for as such. Within the last few years a statute of the Imperial parliament has recognized their qualifications to decide definitively in questions involving the nicest points of medical jurisprudence—in questions of lunacy. Shall they now be degraded from the position they