A letter on the mutual relations of the two colleges with reference to the question of medical reform : addressed to David Maclagan, M.D., president of the Royal College of Physicians, and Andrew Wood, M.D., president of the Royal College of Surgeons / by William Brown.

Date:
1857
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter on the mutual relations of the two colleges with reference to the question of medical reform : addressed to David Maclagan, M.D., president of the Royal College of Physicians, and Andrew Wood, M.D., president of the Royal College of Surgeons / by William Brown. 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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    From these varied causes—a common education carried on for several years; a common practice, conducted at some of the great charitable establishments of the city ; a community of effort to obtain and to communicate professional knowledge at our scientific associations—the members of the two Colleges in Edin- burgh have been induced to abandon (not formally, but actually) their separate and exclusive methods of practice, and now act in this respect upon the same principles and in the same manner. They are no longer restrained in this by any consideration of the College to which they belong. The Physicians undertake the treatment of diseases of all kinds, carry their lancet and bis- toury in their pocket-case, and feel no reluctance to use the catheter and bougie besides. Many of them are accoucheurs, and, as such, are familiar with the use of surgical instruments —sometimes in operations that are called capital. All of them have in their houses little depositories of medicines, which they dispense on occasions of emergency more or less urgent; and many of them carry in their pockets a small case for holding a few of the most generally used remedies. A large number of them have received the diploma of Surgeon from a Koyal Col- lege ; and not a few of them add the word Surgeon to their name on their door-plates. The Surgeons also undertake the treatment of diseases of all kinds. A large proportion of them have-the degree of Doctor of Medicine; but none of them decline to undertake the treatment of diseases because these are medical, and not surgical. I remember the time when Mr , Surgeon, was universally the name upon their doors; and that when Dr George Wood, Surgeon, appeared upon a door in Heriot Kow, it was considered an innovation. Now this desig- nation is quite a usual one. So far as the practice of their individual members is concerned, one cannot see why there should be two Colleges in Edinburgh. Is not this separation, this bisection of the profession, symbolical of a state of things which has long passed away ? Were legis- lation for the first time to be contemplated, would not only one of medicine. The license to practise the art of healing was given by another body. Even now, when the Universities confer the degree of Doctor in Divinity, they do not license to preach ; nor does the degree of Doctor of Laws imply privileges of a lawyer. C