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

131쪽

lhat it intended more than it professed to signisy,

may be inferred froni the compromise that was made at the time by one of the uni ei si- ties; that, for the future, mandamus degreesse iliould be given to none but such as stiould be recommended by the college: and that suci, as the College, or any twelve fello S recom- mended, sliould never be re sed on payment of the usual sees'. V This inferenCe appears confirmed, is we consider the increased difficul-ties that were thrown in the way of those fo- rei n graduates, who might be de rotis os ad- militon into the college as Candidates or fellows,

by the subsequent statutes publislied by the college in 1765. By those statutes ', Not any one Can be ad-

mitted into the order of Candidates, who is not

132쪽

of his gradu ation in Dublin University, after having performed ali prescribed exercises,

without unus ual dispensation or - vour; and likewi se of his incorporation in one of the universities of this kingdom. But not any were to be elected into the order of candidates, by virtve of any honorary or mandamUS degree, Or of any degree obtained by eXtraordinary privi- lege, in either of those universities. VBy the fame statutes ', Not any one Can beadmitted in to the order of fellows, who has not been a candidate for a whole year, CXCept the king's or queen's ordinary physician with salary ; or a regius profestar of medicine, in the University of Oxsord or Cambri lge. But is he be either the one or the other, he must

be entilled, by birili, to ali the rights of a Bri- tisti subject, and have been created a doctor of physic in either the University of OXsord

or Cambridge, after having accomplimed ali things presserit,ed by iis statutes, without Un- ρ usual dispensation or favour ; and is the Ling 's or queen's ordinary physician, or a regius pro- sessor have taken his dosior's degree in Dub- lin University, he is to be subjected to the fame ε conditions os producing testimonials as are decreed for admission into the order of candi-

133쪽

dates, with the fame exception to mandamus or honorary degrees, or degrees of privilege. The humiliating tenour of eXpression, whiCh, in former statutes, ran through ali the prescribe lqualifications of the licentiates, is in these statutes considerably modified. But though the acknowledgment as to merit is more liberalty eXpressed, yet is the essen, as to reward, even more limited than before. It is granted, That there are

many in the city and suburbs qualisied both in knowledge and morais for practising physic. VBut it is asserted, that the salutes of the collage forbid their election into the order of candi- dates or os fellows Can there possibiybe a better Criterion, a more striking proos of the eXtreme improprie ty and injustice of such

statutes ξ The opprobrious contest belween tholicentiates and the College, in 1767, occasioned

likewise a propos at for rescinding this statute, and for substituting for it one, very similar to the ancient orae, stating that many in the city and suburbs practis ed physic, Whom the collegethought entirely dis qualified for elestion into theniimber of candidates or os fellows, ei ther be- cause they were not Britons by birili, or V ere

ου Complures autem in Urbe & circuitu praeclictis repe- riuntur, tam fientia quam moribus idonei, qui medicinar facultatem exerceant; quos tamen in Candidatorum vel Sociorum ordinem cooptari vetant Statuta nos a. ' P. ψ2.

134쪽

not graduates of Oxford, Cambridge, or Dublin Universities ; or were not sussicient ly learned, ornot advanced sussiciently in years, and yet might contributo to the health of mankind, at least insonae Cures, &C. and suCh, a ter clue e Xaminations, were to be permitted to praui se, Oes in omnibus morbis v, in non audis solummodo curationibuΙ,

quamdiu se bene gesserint '.

There must have been sonae reason sor the partiali ty 1hown to the graduates of the Unive si ty os Dublin, in the college statutes of 176s, and in this statute subsequently propos ed. It is no nearly thii ty years since the promulgationos the former, and not much lesse since the propos at of the lalter; but whatever degi eos iuphysic it may have been customary to confer in Trinity College, Dublin, for thirty years Past, there certainly has not been yet ten yearS Ostn-blithed, in that college, any thing like a regularand systematical school of physic. Almost every physici an that has risen to eminen Ce as a Practitioner in physic in Irelaiad, I belle ve ali the presentprofessors, in the disterent branches of medicat science in Dublin Universiity, received the bet- ter part of their mediCal education, and tooktheir dosior's degi eos in physic, in the Universi tyos Edinburgh.

3 Alterations in the present statut Proposed, &c. P. I S, i 6.

135쪽

Is then there mere not any peculiar adVantagesto be derived by any medicat student, in his immediate prosellional pursuits, either in the universities of En land or in that os Dublin, when these statutes were determine J on and enacted, there musthave been s me other reason, than the PretenCeos a be iter opportunity of acquiring medicat knowledge in those universities, as weli for eXafting froni physicians a document of graduation asdodiors, after the fuit performance of prescribe lduties at Oxford or Cambridge, prior to admit- ting them into the College of Physicians in London : as for the decide 1 and marked preference offered to the graduates of Dublin University, both by receiving them in the universities of Eng-land , ad eundum gradum, and at the College of Physicians in London, into the order of candidates, Iapon the mere ground of theis ceremonisus admission at OXford or Cambri lge. It we consider the statutes, which were enafledio a merce those admitted in to the college, a terhaving qui ited the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, to take their degrees earlier in othoruniversities' than could be done in those, it might appear at first fght, that the pasting of agiven period in studious probation Was the essentiat requis te expected by the College of London.

136쪽

The usage of Trinity College Dublin, is verysimilar to that of the Englici Universities, as tothe perio is of taking degrees : and had the College adopted any regulation, which had est ablis hed me uniform and determinate period of probation, the semblance of reas nablenesse might have been traced in the exaction. Eut sui ely there istaeither the s adow of wis dona, nor os public utilily, in compelling every student of physic toreside and graduate in one of two universitieqonly, Under the penalty of proscription frona allthe rank, and fair pretensions, whicli his acquire-ments may ent ille hina to-especialty in universities, whicli are notoriousty defective in the means of medicat imprOVOmont It must have been perceived that any eXaction, hich had reference to the time nione, UnConnected with the place of study, would netther have promoted the vie N of locat aggrandiZement, nor Could have been reconciled to thedistinet usages of the universities of Englanii, when the statutes of the College of London were made publiC. There Was then an actuat differetice of fuit three years, in the time demande lfor taking a doctor's degree in one university and the other: and upon the principie of objectingto those, who hurried to a degree, the graduates of Oxsord might as weli have eXcluded the gra

137쪽

duates of Cambridge froni the College of Physicians, as both, in conjunction, the graduates of any fore igia university. For untii that disserenceos time was compotanded, by shortening the period required at Oxford, it was a plan frequently adopted by gentiemen, to watCh their OpportUnities of preferment in the University of OXford,

festion os Physic, to get admitted into the Uni- Versity of Cambridge, with an allowance of allthe nominat time they had studied in Oxsord;

and to talae their doctor's degree at the Completion Os eleven years, whicli at Oxford would have required fourteen. I have been informed that there are severat instances of the prudentiat observarace of such an economy of time, among the

present fellows of the College of Physicians. They possibiy might have occupied the wholeos their time with a vie to the profestion os physic; although, in the Englissi universities, very few engage in the pursuit of any particular

profestion, untii severat years after matriculation. The statutes of the Univers1ty of OXsord do notrequire any student to determine Upon a pro Diion uniit he has ta ken his bachelor's degree inarts, whicli substracis four years from the elevende manded for a doctor's degree in physic.

138쪽

From this Circumstance two Very evident Conclusions are deducibie. The one, that sevenyears study is considered by the College of Physicians as fully adequale for ali the profostonia acquirements of a physician. The other, that the penal statutes' against those, who were admitted by the college, after they had qui ited the Universities of OXford and Cambridge, to ACCOmplisti an early graditation in other universities, were not munded ora the principie they professe; for the statutes of the University of Cambridge eXacted then three years lesse than those of the University of OXford, i and many, who have spent twice eleven years in the pursuit and in the actuat practice of physic, a re stili excluded Domthe college, and dented ali titie to admissiori. Ιs we consider, for a moment, the fasi as to the time, whicli the Englisti universities require fora doctor's degree in physic, it will appear, that there is an ostentatious display of a long period of study, whicli, perhaps, not any gradUate has ever accomplimed, and whicli ali have it in their power eXCessively to abate. The degree of doctor of physic may be nowtaken, at OXford, in eleven years frona the time os

139쪽

matriculation; but there are progrestive honoursio be achie 'ed, be re the degree of doctor canbe Conseri ecl. Such are the degree of bachelor in aris obta in able in mur years ; that os master ofaris in three years more ; that os bachelor in physic in one year afterwards: and three yearS subsequent to this is the period for taking the de-gree of doctor in physiC. At Oxford, there are four terms in ea Ch aCademicat year, whicli together malle, acCOrding totheir specification in the statute books, abolit thir-ty-two wee S, the remainder of the solar year Constitutes the vacations ; of the whole of the elevensolar years, therei ore, whicli must necessarily passaway be re the student in physic Can arrive aldo rat honours, there are but litile more than siX years and three quarters to be rechoned asthe time required of him by the university : forthe eleven academicat yearS, Or forty-fOur termS, compri se a period of lesse than seven years. This, certain ly, could not be Considereo as a Contempti ble proportion of the whole apparent time, PrOvided so much were reatly employed at the universi ty, and in ad tuat application. This, hoWeVer, is by no means the case, for residen Ce at the universi ty is dispensed Nith, after the prescribed exercises have been performed for the degree of Ι et master

140쪽

master of aris ' : the student in physic, there fore, when he has ac complis hed that degree, has onlyto go thither at the stated perio is, for a day per-haps, to receive the academicat hono urs in his peculiar faculty. Thus the eleven years exas ted for the attain-ment of a doctor's degree in physic, appears to amount only to the severa academicat years of residen Ce professed ly required for a master's de-gree in aris : and is thos e seven years, Or twen

ford, nominalty eleven years, proveS to be, infast, not even Mur years and a half; and this calculation is made under the idea os a more scrupulous eXa fine se in keeping ternis, than is

ever attended to.

Quod si quis Exercitia ad Gradum Magistralem requisita praestiterit, & reliquum temporis spatium in bonarum literarum studio posuerit in alia quacunque Academia, licebit ei tempus id omne imputari, ac si in hac ipsa Academia fuisset insumptum: Constet id modo, ac testatum sit sub Sigillo Aca demiae in qua se studuisse profitetur, aut alioqui Testimonio