Address on the occasion of the first meeting in the new house of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society, no. 20, Hanover Square, on Tuesday, October 22, 1889 / by Sir Edward H. Sieveking.

  • Sieveking, Edward H. (Edward Henry), 1816-1904.
Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Address on the occasion of the first meeting in the new house of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society, no. 20, Hanover Square, on Tuesday, October 22, 1889 / by Sir Edward H. Sieveking. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    8/12 (page 8)
    which was defrayed by voluntary subscriptions^ of the Fellows, was marked by the absence of a volume of the ' Transactions/ owing to the confusion necessarily arising from the migration. At this time the agitation for a Royal Charter was successful, and since then we have been incorporated as the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London/ of which the Sovereign (in the first instance, William the Fourth) is Patron, by which name we shall have perpetual succession and a Common Seal,'' with such other rights and privileges as belong to any other body, politic and corporate, in our United King- dom of Great Britain/' It was not without a struggle that this Charter had been obtained; the Society had made great efforts during the years 1812, 1813, and 1814 to achieve this object of their ambition. In the month of February, 1812, ''in consequence of the gracious re- ception accorded by H.R.H. the Prince Regent to an application of Sir Henry Halford, who was at that time President of the Medical and Chirurgical Society, a peti- tion for a Charter was sanctioned by the Society; after having been signed by Sir H. Halford, President, Drs. Saunders and Baillie, past Presidents, by Sir Walter Farquhar, Drs. Marcet and Yelloly, and Messrs. Clive, Abernethy, and Cooper, the Trustees of the Society, it was laid before H.R.H. the Prince Regent in Council. I regret to say that the Royal College of Physicians, under the Presidency of Sir Francis Milman, objected to the grant, stating in their counter-petition that they would be materially aggrieved by the grant of a Royal Charter of Incorporation to the Medical and Chirurgical Society. The grounds upon which the College based its opposition would be unintelligible to the present generation, but as an item in the history of British medicine, I think it right to place before you some of the arguments employed on behalf of the College. It was said by its defenders that by certain Regulations or Bye-laws of the said College, ' Thej amounted to £346 9*. » This charter was granted to Dr. Elliotson, Sir Astley Cooper, Bart and Dr. Yelloly.