A general view of the establishment of physic as a science in England, by the incorporation of the College of Physicians, London : together with an inquiry into the nature of that incorporation : in which it is demonstrated, that the exclusion of all

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mercury, in the Cure of Luci Venerea, had scarcelybecome general; and so litile were iis powers comprehended, that as much mis hief was frequently occasioned by iis improper application, AS WAS ever OCC ioned by the abuse of any medicine whais ever. Essects were osten produced by it more direful than the dis asses, whicli it was made use of to cure, so that it was observed by

Fernelius, a cotemporary praeritioner, that the Cure Was most generalty esseSted Tanta cum rigoris acerbitate, ta malorum acervo, ut credi possit, ni- mium vivendi cupidos, qui non mori maluerint, quam

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larly, perhaps, to the practice in France, but therational use of mercury was earlier undersioodupon the continent than in Britain. Restraint in praetice, Upon account of the flagitious abuse of this most powerfui remedy alone, Was never more necessary than it had become atthat period. The necessity of the case mighthave sufficiently justified the College in the mea re os examining ali men, Who were in the leastengaged in the practice of physic, and of licensing thos , whom they found equat to partiat practiceonly; and who were not qualisled for admission into the fellowship of a college of learned and scientific men. Ihey might have done this consistently with the letter of their charter; and bydoing it have weli promoted iis objens. Therest: aint iis etf was an example of the fair andrea nable gubernatio omnium hominum facultatem medicinae exercentium.

ing to the tenour of his permission grauita lis θ the cofuge, and his own promise . V The custom os partialty licensing prafiitioners was, in ali

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ali probability, prevalent froni the very time thecolle e firsi es ablished such an order as licen

Lord Mansfield observed in the Case, ReX V. Dr. Ashew, & at', the eighth of Geo. III. that a parfies licence Was granted to an oculist in 1 361. A person said he) may be sit to prac- ti se in one branch who is hol fit to practi se in another. Licences have also been granted to omen, and that may not be uiareas nable in particular cases, as sor instance, such as Drs.' Stephen s medicine sor the stone. Partias licen- ces he continuedin have been given for above two hundred years This carries back their introduciton to abo ut the period of the fit si establissiment of the three separate classes of prastitioners. It is very probabie, that the whole classe of licentiates Consisted then os sicli persons as were incompotentio generat practice ; and that ali physicians, possessed of the rights of Britisti subjects, who were est, ous os admittion in to the college, were entilledio a fair eXamination, and, as a matter of Course dependent Iapon Chartered right, is found competent, Were indisputat, ly eligibie to be elefled into the commonalty or sello sit p. It will ap-

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defrous of heconiiug members of the laid col- lege Or Commonalty, and had been, or Rould be pexamined and approCed of by the president anil censors of the said College or Commonalty, GS candidates for elerition into the society or fellow- ship of the faid college or common alty, Who

fortii called candidates And The other clast to consist of such persons as then were, Or at any time therea ter mould be licen sed arid admitted to exercise the said faculty of physic in the city of London, and within seven miles round the sanie, by the said president and col- lege, or Commonalty, by their letters sealed with the common seat of the fa id college or

Commonalty, which last mentioned classe not betur members of the said College or Commo alty, were, and were to be froni thenceforth called Permisi, or licentiateSIn Ι575, twenty years posterior to the asserted origin of this by-law discriminating three classes of medicat prastitioners, there were not any licentiates named among the members of the College. It is not at ali likely that those, to whominea ely partiat licenses had been granted, sliould have been considered quali ed and entis led tohave their names inserted as members of the college.

Rex v. Coll. of Physicians. Bur. Rep. V. v. p. 27ss.

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College. But there wa S another order of practi. tioners at that time, besides sello S, candidates, and licentiates, whose names were inserted in the College Catalogue, as memberS, Under the denomination of Strangers of the College. It is hi ghlyprobabie, Dona their being classed as strangerS, asweli as frona their names , that they were fore igners, and gradu ates of soreigia universities. But the strangers were eligibie to admission into the ordor os candidates, and consequently into

the fellowship of the college, sor in the collegelist of 13 3 Doditor Spiringe is inserted as a frangernnd a candidate. As then Dr. Ferdinand De Victoria, one of the siX physicians through whom, chiefly, the Charier was obtained, was a foreigner, and ns it is rea nable to conclude that the stran-gers of the college, who were eligibie to the fel-lowship, were foreigners likewise; so it appears that, at the time the college was founded, and formore than fifty years afterwards, fore igners were

admissibie to a distitistion in ii, whicli many arenow arbitrari ly dented, who are entilled by bii thio ait the privileges of Brit isti subjefrs, and whohave been e ludated in Britilli universities t. Nei ther' Dr. Julio, Dr. Martyn Corymbanck, Μr. Hector, Dr. Lo-Pes, and Dr. Spiringe, a candidate, who is likewise denominateda stranger. Mai Iaud's His. ν Londou, V. ii. p. 929. l, A very considerable number have been educated in the University of E inburgi, whicli for more than half a centui past has been most justly celebrated as the fit it Medieai Siaboliu

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Nei ther aliens nor denigens can, even at this time, eXe Cute, in this Country, any ossice of civilor military trust and in the si Xteenth centurythe restrictive laws against aliens and denigens were severer than they a re now . But as healthis natural ly the sirst concern of man, and as

reigia physicians were so frequently employed here by the Crown, and as ali Englisa physicians were in leb ted for their knowledge to fore ignuniversities; Is it not unreas nable to suppose, whilst the superior education and celebrity of re igia physicians procured them particular estimation and extraordinarγ industencis in this Coun-

try, that Britisti subjects educated abroad mould have been eXCluded, with the sigma os implied

inferiority, froin the privileges of that Corporation, which was e stablis hed for the reformationand promotion of the science of physic ZIt was Very usual formerly to admit, into thenumber of licentiates, surgeons and apotheCaries, men who had taken no degree in physic. Nearly twenty such were licensed during the reigns of Villiam III. and Queen Ania, and otherS morere Cently.

in Europe. Men os ali nations have resorted to it, to profit by the instruction os professors, who have combined with themost active exertion ali the a luantages of eminent abiliues, and of learning. μ See Blackstone's Comment. V. i. p. 372. 37 .

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recently. Such licentiates, even since the College catalogues haVe been annualty printed, and thenames of the permisi inserted, have never been ranked in them as dosiors in physic, althoughlicensed to praciis e generalty . That the surgeons and apothecaries h ad notany privilege to practisse, independent of a license Doni the College in the siXteenth centUry, APPearSclearly Dona their having been prohibited frona practising, in the reigns of Mary and Eligabeth, at the licitation of the College of Physicians And heiace it is probabie, that the clasi os licentiates Was originalty establis hed with a view tofandilon, under circumstances of rea nable re-straint, per ias who might have procured degrees, but who were incompetent to generat practice, and the more skil l of the apothecaries and surgeons, in eXercising the medicat profession partially. This opinion is strongly confirmed by the ternis of the by-law, in the early copies of the College generat statutes, under whicli licentiates were admitted to praesisse.

Since that many praestis e physic in the city

of London, whom the president and college or commonalty

' In the present catalogiae of the College of Physicians, thereis an instance of this, in a very respectable character. t See Appendix D. and Bur. ReP. V. V. P. 27s7-

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sons stiali be permitte i to practis e so long as th

that, under whicli Dr. Fothergili had been permitted to practis e physic, was sa id to be the thos April 1737 . It is however a by-law, Whichis extant in every manuscript Copy, that I haveseen of the generat statutes of the college, andit appears highly probabie, that it was the origi

, Bur. Rep. V. V. P. 2756, 27S 7,

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ates of Oxford and Cambri lge are, when si stadmitte 1 to the fellowssaip of the college ; and

who have, moreover, gi ven decisive proose, both to the college in their Corporate capacity, and to the worid at large, that they are netther des- Cient in learning, nor in medicat skill . The regular medium os admission, to the privileges of the fellowstlip of the college, is a year's probation in the order of candidates. It may perhaps have always been so since 1333. Notany one Will dispute the propriety or wisdom offXing a term os probation for thos , who are to

the fello only siould be considered members of the college, and that the classe of candidates si)ould consist of suci persons os had been, or ould bese desinous of hecoming members of the laid college and commonalty, and had been, or stiould be eXamined and approved of by the president