That Convocation should desire Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for Home Affairs to introduce immediately into Parliament a Bill prohibiting Dinner Parties, exceeding seven persons in number, to be held without the presence of a qualified Physician or Surgeon.
Of Dr. Aqua Fortis—
That a Bill should be likewise required, compelling Railway and Steamboat Companies to employ, at suitable salaries, a staff of properly qualified Surgeons, one of whom at least should travel by every train and on every steamboat.
And of Dr. Scurvydrop—
That a Deputation from Convocation should wait on the Lords of the Admiralty to remonstrate on the subordinate position allotted to Surgeons on board Her Majesty’s Ships, and to demand that the Medical Officer should at all times (except when the immediate conduct of the ship is in question) takes precedence of the Captain as Commander.
A similar motion was made by Dr. Turniquet for a deputation to the Horse Guards on behalf of the Army Surgeons, and was, like all the preceding motions, adopted unanimously.
The Report concludes with the observation—
As Parliament does not meet for another week, there must be a delay of a few days before the recommendations of Convocation are carried into effect, but it is unnecessary to remark that they will be adopted unchallenged by the Legislature. Since the solemn Protest, carried by the 50,000 doctors, who marched down Whitehall in procession, “against the Interference of the Secular Power in Things Medical,” no Minister of the Crown, much less any private member, has attempted to move an Amendment to any of the numerous Bills presented by the profession.
After the Report of Convocation, the Age of Science contains one column of Stocks and Shares, not possessing any special interest for readers of the present day, but appearing to prove, strangely enough, that investments are much fewer than in our time, and cannot be made in any Foreign securities. After these, in lieu both of Naval and Military Intelligence, and of the Church, five columns are devoted to Medical Appointments and Promotions, and to a considerable correspondence on the proposed endowment of two new Physicianships (with seats in the House of Lords) at St. Albans and Truro. After all these we find twenty columns devoted to Latest Intelligence, in short paragraphs, of which we cull a few of the most interesting.
OCCASIONAL NOTES.