Letter to the Lord Advocate of Scotland, on medical reform / by James Syme, F.R.S.E.

  • Syme, James, 1799-1870.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Letter to the Lord Advocate of Scotland, on medical reform / by James Syme, F.R.S.E. 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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    •1 tice of England, of a general or family kind, is in the hands of those who supply the medicines which they prescribe, and are, in fact, remunerated for professional services by the price attached to their drugs. At present, therefore, it is obviously imp>ossible by any extent of education or examination in Scotland to obtain the right of medical practice in England. In countries so united as England and Scotland, such an exclusive restriction in favour of the former could be justified only on the ground of the latter being defective or inferior in the means of instruction. But so far from this being the case, it will be found, that whether the supply of instruction or the demand for it be made the criterion of judgment, the Medical Schools of Scotland must be conceded a higher place than those of England. In England there is not a single teacher in any Medical School appointed by Govern- ment, while in Scotland there are no fewer than twenty holding royal commissions as professors of the various departments of medical study. In England there is not a single Medical School supported or recognised by Govern- ment, while in Scotland the three great medical seminaries of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen, have not only re- ceived large grants of the public money for the ei'ection of their buildings, but annually draw allowances for their libraries, museums, gardens, and professors' salaries. The University with which I have the honour of being con- nected, has received upwards of £100,000 for completing the College buildings, and £30,000 for the support of the Botanic Garden, besides £575 a-year for the library, and £500 for the salaries of five Medical Professors. Nearly £100,000 has been bequeathed to the Principal and Pro- fessor for promoting, as may seem best to them, the pros- perity of the establishment. Large collections, illustrative of anatomy, natural history, materia medica, and other