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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By a succession of admitted members, the perpetui ty of the es ablimed college was tobe maintained ; and the president and collegemere authorized to malle by-laws for the who fome goVertament, supervising, and correstion of the said college, and of aE men practising physic, in London and seven miles round . Longas ter the college was incorporaled, the medicat practice of the turgeons and the apothecaries Wasiander the controut of the admitted physicians. It has never been dires ted, ei ther by the char-ter, or by any aft of partiament, in What man-ner the college were to eXamine the physicians, whom they admitted; it consequently follows, that their fornas of eXamination, and of subsequent admission, have been prescribed only in their statutes or by-lRWS. A particular knowledge of the history of any incorporaled society, is, Certainly, not a requisite qualification for admission to iis fellowmip. As licentiates of the College of Physicians, wemay ali, perhaps, on a retros pedi of our eXamination and admission to practisse, avo our total ignorance, at that time, of the by-laws, under whicli the college conducted the one, orgranted the other. The by-laws of the collegeare not publictied so as to be Purchased, they are

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now nei ther presented to the licentiates, nor readio them. To bind men to the observance of laws, with whicli they have not the means of becomingacquainted, is in Congruous to every idea os rational and impartial jurisdifrion. I have ever Considered this condust in the College of Physicians, with a distriast os iis mo

tonishment, the wide disserence of privileges andrank possessed by the fellows of the college and thelicentiates. I have ne ither observed the appear-ance of greater abilities, nor os maturer j Udgment, in my intercoiarse with the former than with thelaiter. Their public productions have not, οὐ tener, displayed either generat learning or profestional knowledge. The licentiates have beenas industrious as the fellows of the college, in the pursuit os ali useful information. They areas Conversant in polite literature. They have studied under the fame medicat professors withmany fellows of the college, and have possessedali the advantages of attending the fame hospitalS Considering these circumstances Ι was Consident, that not any superiori ty of claim asto be conceded to the fellows of the college, under the pressinaption Of e XClusive excelleiace,

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or of preeminent ab ilities : but my curiosi ty Wasnot, tili lately, eXcited to investigate the s urce of so conspicuous a distinction, among the eXam ined, approVed, and admitted physicians of this metropolis and iis vicinity: a distinction sodegra ling to the professional Character of every

licentiatC.

In prosecuting the inquiry it was rea lily dis-CoVerable, that the College, when they framediheir statutes relating to the admisson os members, had lost figlit os ali due consideration of the de- sign and intention of the Crown and parti ament in their institution. V They have generalty esta-blislied such statutes upon an arbitrary principie; in consequence of whiCh, every liCentiate, when admitted to practisse, has been directed to subscribe to a declaration of his own Comparative ignorance. For he is confrinia to receivea license under a by-law, whicli declares his incompetenCy to beCome a member of the col

bridge, or those, Who haVe been incorpora ted there, are Considered eXClusively entilled to a posor admission into the corporation.

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liri, the same for the license and the sellowship. Is it were not so, the censors would violate theiroath to the college, and their obligation to the public, by a flagrant breach of an important trust; be cause the right of practising is as un- limited with the licentiates as with the fellows, and it is as requisite to investigate their quali fications. There has been introduced, indeed, oflate years, for the salie of a colour te distinction, a tristing differetice in the forna of eXamining the candidates for the fellowship. But thelicentiates have been deni ed the very right of Vndergoing this forna os examination sor equat pri

In the printed copy of the College statutes, of

1763, there is biit one forna of examination fortite candidates and licentiates. It was not untilas ter the absurd and riolous contest, in 1767, of me of the licentiates for admittance at thecollege gales, that any actuat disserence Was es-

tablimed in the examination of the candidates The frsi regular admisiton os a fellow of the College, after that period, was in 17 73, and the ne v rna required the Candidates, as a proos of theirknowledge of the Greek language, to renderinto Latin, during their eXamination, sonae Passages froni the writ ings of Hippocrates and Galen ;

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ment.

d here is not any material objection to the requiring such a proos of the learning of any physician, Who is selicitoris of the privileges of the

corporation. But is to translate frona Greeli into Latin, With a Concise comment, the writ ings of Hippocrates and Galen, or of Aretaeus, or of any other Greela author, be the ultimate test of medicat erudition exacted frona their candidates, by the College of Physicians; why are not ali men equal-ly entilled to admistion, who are C Ualty COm PC-tent to that test ξ Let the exacted proose of learning

and of professionat capacity be What they may, thesole question is, and the ora ly inquiry ought to be,

barred frona the highest privileges of the faculty of physic, there be physicians, who are in reality,

AS The medicat riot in Warwic k Lane was in September i 767. The college statutes were abrogated soon after variis, with a view to establim an amen led Code. In the alterations propos ed to the college by their committee; and printed without a date, the folio ving statute is recommended. Statui- mus etiam & ordinamus ut singulis eorum, qui vel in ordi- dinem Candidatorum vel Sociorum admitti petunt, pro- ponantur inter examinandum loci ex scriptis Hippocratis & Galeni,

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as weli quali fled, in ali res pedis, as the at wed candidates for the fellowship of the college; cari they possibiy Conceive, that their exclusion is not arbitrary and oppressive ξ Will theybe divei ted irona that opinion by discovering, that, in the very aft os accepting their license, they unkno iugo subscribed to the reproactis Iimputation os self inferiority ξ and that, by doingso, they were beti ab ed into an apparent a CknowIedgment of the justnesse of a distinction, whicli

disparages their abilities, and depreciates their meriri is, in comparison with men of nei ther beller un- derstanding, nor of higher acquirements than

which but ili accorils with the notion os a resined age ; sor the ideas of progressive resinementand of the gradual abandonment of Vulgar prel Os sessions are inseparably associaled in the minit Among those, to whom the Concession of rank is admitted to be just, upon a presumption of their superior attainmenis, mankind are irresistit,ly ledio eXpect men, with mlndS enlightened by science.who, in the acquirement of eXtensiVe knowledge,

& Galeni, quos apte latine reddant brevique Commentario illustrent. V I conjecture these propos ed alterations to have been printed about the year 1768. There was a draught of neW statutes, printed in to. in I 7so, Whicli Ι have not seen.

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have learned to temper their judgment with moderation, and to free their decisions stom pre-judice ; men, Who, in the conduct of liis, dis lain the Jow principies, whicli afluate the illiterate. Is it be urged, that there reatly are, Among the present fellows of the College of Physicians, men of this description men, Whose literary aC-quirements res est dignity on their professionalcharacter; is it be granted, that there are, Among them, men, Whose gentiemaraly ConduSi and suavity of manners, in private Efe, ConCiliate morethan the common esteem of thos , who have thepleas ure of their acquaintance ; how is it to bereconciled, that, in their corporate capacis , thesinfringe every sentiment of liberality, by the nar-rowes and most pertinacious adherence to the

principies of Corporation monopoly t Even, in their admission os licentiates to the fellows hipspeciali gratia, has their selection been determine lby a genero US attention to eXtraordinary merit ξHas it not rather been governed by parti ut re- Commendation, and frequently accompanted by such humiliating conditions, that, in the manneros conceding, they have cancelled ali the favour of the concession, and obliterated even that sem-hlance of honoui , whicli might, other isse, have graced the acceptance Z

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A Greeli eXamination is, or is not, requisite forascertaining the competency of Candidates sor thesello stlip of the college: is it be hinnecessary, tho sole intention os es tablis hing it must have been to create an invidious distinction, betweenthe osens ibis learning of gradu ates of the Englimand of other Universities. Is it be in reality essentiat, the partiat recommendation, alone, of npresident, or of any other man, however high in prosellional consequenCe, is not an adequale Proofos proper qualiscation to be admitted to the fellowship. As litile is it a proof of ingenuousinesse of minit to oppos e the admii ion of men, who have atready givera every requisite proos of competenCy in prosellional knowledge, and who licit the est lis hed test os classical erudition. Such an influence of recommendation is incompatibie with the fundamental principie of the incorporaled College ; such an opposition betrays

Ιt might reas nably have been eXpected, that, when the college abrogated their statutes, whicheXcluded aliens, who are legalty incapacitated forthe offices of the corporation, they would have abolished those, lihewise, whicli exclude Britissiphysicians. It would have silown a stronger attachment to the obligation of their trusi, than to the influence of partial intercesson. Complimentary

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tary compliance, stom interest or personat favour, is a violation of duty in the exercise of ossices of public confideiace; and what else, but a Compliment, Can it be reckoned, to Concede the honoursos the college to thos , whom the laws of theland interdict frona executing any of the ossicialfunctions of the fellowship t Aster deliberate investigation, I am thoroughly persuaded, that the College of Physiciaris neverhad authority, legato conceded to them, to refuse the corporate Privileges of the College to any Physician, wheres ever he might have been educated, provided he were Competent, by the law of the land, to execute ossices of civit trus , and were found, Upon examination, satis doctus et probuS.It has been my endeaVour, Gentiemen, to giVeyou a Clear and candid view of this question. I cannot have an interest in perverting your j Udgment. You must observe that I have been, as Dr. Goodali formerly declared himself to have been, in vindication of the college, forced to adventure upon the exercise of more faculties than one, and to me id te in matters of law aS well as of physic'. V It was the opinion of Junius, that to investigate a question of law deman is sonae laboUr

e The Coll. of Phys. vindicated. Preface to the Reader.

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bo ur has not been inconsiderabie, nor my attention Cursory. Is, neverthelesse, a too implicit confiden ce in the truth of my argument, have be-trayed me into a too firm reliance upon unienable conClusionS, I am open to conviction, and shouldhe more gratified to see tho se conclusions candid lyrefuted, than Ι could pol bly be in the ei oyment of the highest advantages obtainable Uponthe ground of error. Under ali circumstances, Ιtrusi myself secure in your favola rabie opinionos my motives for the attempl. To thos , whose peculiar studies enable them to forna a betterjudgment of the subjeci, sonae apology is, Certa in-Jy, duC. You have ali been appriZed, Gentiemen, thaton A res has been sent to the College of Physicians, requesting admission for others to the fel-lowshis', under the fame e Xaminations as those,

under