Medical Jurisprudence, Volume 1 (of 3)

by John Ayrton Paris; J. S. M. Fonblanque

PART I.

1. Of the College of Physicians.—2. College of Surgeons.—3. Society of Apothecaries.—4. Medical Liabilities and Exemptions.—5. Public Health.—6. Quarantine Laws.—7. Medical Police.

1. OF THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS.

It does not appear that the Professors of Physic were in any way classed, or incorporated, in England, until the year 1522, although we learn from the preamble of the Charter of Henry the Eighth, as well as from the petition of the 9th of Henry the Fifth, that other countries had long before that period established Medical Colleges, having considered such a measure not only as necessary for the encouragement of science, but as highly politic for the preservation of the public health.

England, although destined to take the lead in research and discovery at a later period, was in the sixteenth century far behind her continental neighbours in the field of Science. And with respect to the study and practice of physic, it seems probable that, until after the foundation of the College of Physicians, it had not even assumed the character and dignity of a regular profession; for we find that the very few learned men in that branch, which the annals of the period can furnish, had acquired their knowledge in the foreign universities.

Until the auspicious period of the Reformation, various circumstances contributed to retard the progress of medical science; the first and most considerable of which may be traced to the many monastic establishments[^[62]] with which the country was infested; the Monks are known to have practised physic very extensively, and when the superstitious character of these ages is considered, we shall not feel surprised at the vulgar, and perhaps not the lower order alone, having preferred, to every other medical assistance, the aid of those who arrogated to themselves the immediate assistance of heaven in the preparation and administration of their medicines.

The Alchemists[^[63]] were another, and very numerous class to whom we may justly refer the temporary degradation of the science of medicine. Like their lineal descendants, the Empirics of modern times, their attention was directed to the discovery of an universal specific which should be equally applicable to every disease; and as presumption is ever proportionate to incapacity, we need not be surprised that they should have been eagerly followed by the ignorant of their day, as their successors are by the vulgar of our own; under such circumstances there could have been but little encouragement to men of real learning, and as we find by the recital of the act of 5 Hen. 8. c. 6. that there were but twelve regular Surgeons practising in all London, we may safely conclude that the number of legitimate physicians must have been proportionally smaller. The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge had probably from the time of their foundation conferred degrees in medicine, but these do not appear to have carried with them any general privilege or authority; their rights indeed were reserved by the concluding section of the 3d Hen. 8, c. 11, but in what those rights consisted has not been judicially determined, even though the litigation to which the Act and the subsequent Charter of the College gave rise, would naturally have produced some decision on this point, had the extent of those ancient rights ever been legally defined[^[64]]. We shall not consume any farther time upon this question, for although it might be a subject of some antiquarian curiosity, it would furnish but little matter of professional interest, or practical utility. In the present age the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge are firmly united by a communion of sentiment and interest to the College of Physicians, and physicians are rarely admitted as Fellows[^[65]] of this learned body, unless they have previously graduated in one of the English Universities, or at Trinity College, Dublin, but even in this latter case, it is required that the candidate for admission should have been previously incorporated either into the University of Cambridge or Oxford. That a distinction founded on such a basis should have excited an angry and jealous feeling in the excluded party is not extraordinary; and the authors of the present work hope that they shall stand excused for offering a few remarks upon a subject which they consider vitally interwoven with the best interests of the profession. The arguments which have been so repeatedly urged against the justice, as well as policy, of the Bye-law[^[66]] which thus excludes all, but the graduates of an English University, from the honours of the Fellowship, may be easily refuted, and its salutary tendency, in relation to the interests of the public, as well as to the dignity of the profession, very satisfactorily demonstrated. For the complete knowledge of medicine, as a science, all the collateral lights of natural philosophy and erudition, are required; while for its successful practice as an art, the physician should possess those high qualifications of mind, and have received that moral cultivation which a mere technical education can never bestow. We are willing to admit that “the curative art cannot be learnt on the sequestered banks of the Cam or the Isis, as well as amid the distress and sickness of a great city;” but we assert with equal confidence, that the liberal pursuits, and wholesome discipline of an English university, can best prepare the mind for the full and extensive benefits, which the pupil is afterwards to derive from his professional studies in the metropolis; and if it be essential to encourage a liberal education amongst those who are destined to move in the higher walks of physic, we would ask whether any plan could be derived more likely to ensure our object, than that fair and honourable reward which is held out by this unjustly reviled bye-law of the College of Physicians. It has been urged, that the education of a physician is thus rendered materially and unnecessarily expensive; and that the delay of twelve years, which are required for the full completion of the highest medical degree, proves another great and vexatious hardship;—to all this we reply, that we should politically resist any measure that had the least tendency to divest medical education of its pecuniary sacrifices, and to open the temple to a crowd of needy and half-educated adventurers. Tissot seems to have entertained the same sentiment, and he observes that, for these reasons, no person ought to be allowed to study physic in his native city: the operation of this bye-law will therefore furnish the surest guarantee of professional respectability, and the College of Physicians will continue to enroll names distinguished for science and erudition, men who will cast a lustre on the profession, over which they preside: let then the practitioner in medicine beware how he attempts to depreciate the dignity and importance of this ancient institution, or to deny the rights and privileges to which the corporate body is legally and morally entitled, for to the College of Physicians, as it regards the whole profession of physic, we may address the same emphatic words that Cicero applied to Torquatus with reference to the state, “Tibi, nullum periculum esse perspicio, quod quidem sejunctum sit ab omnium interitu.”

Nor is the College singular or invidious, as may at first sight appear, in adopting this rule; by far the greater number, if not all, of the Bishops require a similar qualification for the Church; and the Inns of Court, though they do not exclude others, grant some indulgence to members of the University on entering their respective societies, and remit two years of the usual term of probation to those who have taken the degree of Master of Arts or Bachelor of Laws previously to their call to the Bar.

The College of Physicians in London owes its foundation to Dr. Thomas Linacre of All Soul’s, Oxford, one of the physicians to king Henry the 8th, a man of profound learning and most devotedly attached to his profession; having studied at Rome, Bologna, and Florence, (then under the government of Lorenzo de Medici, by whom he was encouraged), he naturally imbibed an admiration of the medical schools with which Italy then abounded, and appears to have distinguished himself so much both by his general learning and particular science that he was called to Court as physician to the king, and entrusted by Henry the 7th both with the health and education of his son prince Arthur.

The practice of Medicine was about that time, as we have before observed, chiefly engrossed by empirics and monks, who, and especially the latter, easily obtained licences from the bishops in their several dioceses, to whom was committed the authority of examining practitioners in an art of which they could not be competent judges. Linacre, through his interest with Cardinal Wolsey, a man most highly and honorably distinguished for his munificent encouragement of learning, obtained in 1518 Letters Patent (see Appendix, p. 5,) from Henry the 8th,[^[67]], constituting a Corporate Body of regular Physicians in London, with peculiar privileges hereafter to be specified. Linacre[^[68]] (though his name is second in the Letters Patent) was elected the first President of the College, which held its meetings at his house in Knight Rider Street; he was continued in the office during his life, and bequeathed his house to the College at his death; he was distinguished both by his learning and his friendship with learned men, among whom he enjoyed the commendations of Erasmus and Melancthon. He died in 1524, in the sixty-fourth year of his age, and was buried in St. Paul’s, where a monument was erected to his memory by Dr. Caius, one of the most learned and munificent of his successors. See Preface to Goodall’s Proceedings of the College: Biog. Britan.: Aikin’s Biog. Mem. of Medicine: & 6 Aikin’s General Biography.