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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    qualities, and pursuing an inglorious routine in his professional labours, still he has some knowledge and some skill which he uses for the good of others. Whether we have before us a man of opulence and rank, rejoicing in his equipages and attendants, and receiving golden fees from the aristocracy of the land, or a humble village doctor, toiling among his poor neighbours, and preparing with his own hands the medicines needed for their relief—still they are members of the same noble brotherhood ; the same blood circulates in their veins. It is this unity of the JMedical Profession which we ought ever to keep in view, and which the legislative enactments of so many countries have tended to disturb. This disturbing influence has most generally been shown in the division of the profession into Physicians and Surgeons. If we look at the etymology of these designations, we learn that the one has to do with Nature, the other with the hand. But tbe one is generally understood to treat internal or constitutional diseases, while the other takes charge of external maladies and accidental injuries. The one writes prescriptions, which are prepared by a druggist, while the other may be himself a druggist, and certainly uses his hands simply, or assisted by in- struments of steel and silver. It is easy to describe upon paper the marches of Physician and Surgeon, but it is impossible, in the practical details of professional life, to maintain them. In the ordinary and general practice of medicine, physic never has been, nor ever can be, separated from surgery.* The con- nection between external and internal diseases is so intimate, that the knowledge of the one is necessary to the knowledge of the other. The right treatment of surgical diseases (as they are called) requires enlarged and enlightened medical skill ; and there are jfew of the strictly medical diseases which do not call for, some time during their progress, the use of mechanical art. It is quite possible for the wealthy patient to employ a plurality of medical attendants, each to perform one fragmentary portion of the work of healing. Such a procedure reminds one of the caste divisions in Hindoo life, or of the distribution of diseases among separate practitioners which prevailed in ancient Egypt. * Lectures on Ivflammation. By John Thomson, M.D. Introduction, p. 7.— The whole question is discuHsed with gi'rat ability in this dissei-tation.