In Paris there exists a complete system of “Assainissement,” or police for the preservation of the public health. Its administration devolves upon M. le Préfet de Police, who for some years resorted to chemists and physicians for advice upon the different questions that might arise; upon such occasions, however, it is evident that he could only obtain that isolated advice, which, for want of having been properly discussed, was frequently arbitrary and weak; he had indeed sometimes temporary commissions, which were formed when any important problem was to be solved. In the year 1802 a council of health was, on the recommendation of M. Cadet de Gassicourt, permanently established. At first it only consisted of four members; but the new avocations required day by day, so multiplied their labours, that they were compelled in 1807 to increase the number of members composing it to seven; and the particular attention necessary to be paid to epidemical diseases determined M. le Préfet to add to it two physicians. The duties of this council of health were, to watch over all insalubrious manufactories and workshops; to collect observations on epidemics, and on the sources from whence they arose. They had, moreover, the charge of superintending the cleansing of the markets, rivers, slaughter-houses, butchers offal, burying-places, sewers, &c. and also of inspecting the public baths; the manufactories of the artificial, and the depots of the natural mineral waters; the amphitheatres for dissection; of making statistical researches on the bills of mortality; on the means of rendering the theatres, hospitals, and other public places more salubrious; on the best system for heating and lighting; on the composition of secret remedies; suspected vessels, &c. When this council received its definite organization, it was composed of the following persons, whose names are a sufficient guarantee of the ability with which the duties of the establishment must have been performed—M. D’Arcet, M. Le Chevalier Cadet de Gassicourt, MM. Deyeux, Berard, Huzard, Leroux, Dupuytren, Pariset, Petit, Marc, and Girard.
An establishment similarly constituted in this country, that should from time to time report its labours to the home department, would without doubt be attended with much advantage, and might suggest many police regulations highly conducive to the health and welfare of the community.
Of the severity of the French system of police, “Pharmaco-legale,” the reader may form some idea, when we inform him that, during the progress of the present work through the press, an apothecary of Verdun has been fined three thousand francs, for selling sulphuric acid to a woman who had poisoned herself with it. We are very far from objecting to such a system, especially where the respectability and knowledge of the vender are not guaranteed by an adequate power vested in some medical corporation. In Germany a mistaken policy exists of regulating every thing connected with health by the law, and which has led to the formation of a cumbrous code of contradictory, and often, injurious enactments.
The legislature of Britain has been accused of apathy upon all subjects in which the prosperity of commerce is not involved, and upon such occasions it is said to display a morbid vigilance and activity; “so truly mercantile are the English,” observes Professor Raynal, “that they mix up commerce with their philosophy, and even with their religion;” as a proof of this, he instances Mr. Locke, who, amongst his arguments for converting the Indians, adds that, “by being thus induced to cover their naked bodies, they would add to the consumption of British manufactures.” We do not admit the allegation, and may be allowed to ask, in what country the fruits of commerce are more liberally devoted to the encouragement of science, or to the promotion of religion? In truth, the benefits which are enforced by the legal enactments of other countries, are in England the spontaneous consequence of individual liberality; and what is that repose which the jealousy of our rival neighbours has denominated apathy, but the placid expression of satisfaction experienced by the whole community at the active liberality of the numerous individuals of which it is composed? We are, nevertheless, willing to admit that occasions do exist in which the interference of the legislature might be made subservient to the preservation of the public health; and, in the course of our work, we have not felt any hesitation in directing the attention of the reader to their several merits. We have, in particular, recommended some enactments in cases of epidemic disease. Under such circumstances of public calamity the people naturally look for the sympathy and support of their government; and the general confidence inspired by a public act, however unimportant in itself, will always be attended with advantage; it will have the tendency to diminish the susceptibility of the people, and to limit the ravages of disease. The sages of ancient Rome were deeply sensible of this important fact in the œconomy of the people; whenever, therefore, their city was threatened with pestilence, a dictator was elected with great solemnity, for the sole purpose of driving a nail into the wall of the temple of Jupiter; and thus, while they imagined that they propitiated an offended deity, they diminished the susceptibility to disease, by appeasing their own fears.
Much benefit might also be conferred on the operative classes of society, by some judicious enactments that should ensure the adoption of the various plans of safety and protection, which science has from time to time discovered for the advantage of those who are engaged in the more dangerous occupations and manufactories; but which, from the apathy of some, and the prejudice of others, have been either heedlessly neglected, or illiberally and insolently repulsed. The blind opposition, which such inventions meet with, is well illustrated in the history of the safety lamp of Sir Humphry Davy, an instrument which has completely succeeded in use, and yet such is the obstinacy of the miners, that many of them continue to expose their own lives, and those of their companions, by carrying open lanterns about the galleries of the mines. The author of the present work has personally experienced the same mortifying insensibility and opposition, in his attempts to prevent the awful accidents that so frequently occur in the mines of Cornwall, from the premature explosion of gunpowder,[[53]] in the operation of blasting rocks.
In the processes of needle-pointing and dry-grinding, the artisans rarely live many years, in consequence of the organic mischief produced in the pulmonary organs, from the fine metallic particles that are inhaled during the operation; to obviate such a source of danger, the Society of Arts offered a premium for any invention that might afford security, and their gold medal was, in consequence, presented to Mr. Abraham, of Sheffield, for his “magnetic guard.” Notwithstanding the expediency of this apparatus, we understand that the greatest opposition has been manifested by the workmen to its introduction. From the extreme danger of the process their wages are very high, and they fear that the adaption of any system that may diminish the risk will be followed by a corresponding reduction in their pay.
Surely such a subject well deserves the attention of the legislature. In France the Prefet de Police would prohibit the carrying on of such arts, unless every means of safety were applied. Such a measure was adopted in the case of the water-gilders in Paris, who hesitated to employ the means of ventilation suggested by M. d’Arcet for their security. It is not our intention to recommend a jurisdiction so absolute and summary, but some enactments should be framed that might secure the safety of the artisan, without infringing upon the liberty of the subject.
Wherever governments have interfered for the purpose of encouraging and rewarding, or of prohibiting and restraining, particular medical opinions or practices, the inexpediency of such interference has generally been soon discovered and demonstrated. What could have been more absurd than the attempt of the French parliament to proscribe the use of antimony,[[54]] or the sale of poppy oil;[[55]] or the enactments of the different governments of Europe to restrain the custom of smoking tobacco.[[56]] The pension conferred by the French government upon M. Sigault[[57]] for the invention of a new mode of facilitating delivery, in cases of difficult parturition; and the medal which was struck to commemorate it, were measures not less inconsiderate and absurd than the vote, by our own parliament, of five thousand pounds to Mrs. Stephens for the supposed discovery of a medicine that could dissolve a calculus in the bladder. But it may be said that we are reasoning against the propriety of a practice from its abuse—That may be very true; but our object is to shew that such a practice is pre-eminently exposed to fallacy and abuse. We profess ourselves, generally, hostile to the policy of remunerating medical discoveries, as they have been termed, by grants of money; although we cheerfully tender our homage and thanks for the great service rendered this country and the world, by the liberal support which the government has afforded to the cause of vaccination; and were the minister even now to withdraw the necessary supplies for the continuance of the vaccine board, the consequences that would, under such circumstances, ensue, afford a subject of the most awful consideration.
According to the view which we have taken of the subject of medical police, as necessary to the welfare of this country, our attention is necessarily directed to the Royal College of Physicians, as the only legitimate source from which the government is to derive its information, and the public their protection. No apology therefore can be necessary for the minute research by which we have endeavoured to ascertain and establish their existing rights and privileges. Under any circumstances it must be an object of the first importance to the profession, but at the present period the inquiry would seem to be marked with a more than ordinary degree of interest, as the anticipated removal of the College, and the increased attention which has been recently drawn to the subject, appear to promise considerable improvements not only in the interior arrangement of that learned body, but also in their public relations.
His present Majesty has afforded an early instance of his regard for our principal medical corporation, by an act of favour no less important to the institution, than honourable to the learned and distinguished physician who presides over its rights and interests, as will appear by the following