tion is afforded to envy, sarcasm, and deceit, and no inducement held out to unity, straight-forward candour, and honesty, for the individual who, at the same time, would seek both honour and fair emolument in his profession.

66

Without an entire separation of pharmacy from the practice of medicine—a full right to the exercise of all our powers in the use of every acknowledged means of cure-and a scale of charges to meet all classes*-the fate of the physician's office is irremediable. It cannot be that the exercise of what is called one of the learned professions is compatible with the trading establishments in all parts of the metropolis; neither under existing circumstances can the man of ordinary means aspire to the care of a pure" physician and "pure" surgeon as his general medical attendants. The truth is selfevident: as long as the public are taught, in any measure, that the gauge of a man's worth in the practice of the medical profession is the amount of medicine taken by his patients, so long must the temptation be forcibly presented to his mind, either to sacrifice his honour to his interest, or his interest to his honour. The ignorance of past times can no longer be pleaded, and the deception, however unwillingly, must henceforth be wilfully practised. It

* " Sit castus, sobrius, pius, et misericors, non cupidus, non extortor pecuniarum, sed secundum laborem suum, et facultates infirmi, et qualitatem finis, et dignitatem ipsius, salaria recipiat moderatè." Guido de Cauliaco, cap. sing. See 'Statutes of Salernum,' antè, p. 28.

is true, some of our well-educated general practitioners in medicine, the true followers of the

ancient carpol, refuse entirely this mode of remune

ιατροι,

ration; whilst by a larger number it is partially adopted, and by still more is made the only source of income. As long as this pertains to the medical profession as a body, they are indissolubly united link by link in a chain, which drags them down from the highest to the lowest, until all, more or less, savour of a grade which they would not acknowledge, but which is still in existence-the representatives of the uneducated barber-surgeon and the apothecaryphysician in their primæval luxuriance.*

If the profession can be awakened to their true interests, no less may the public also. If with one voice they proclaimed the fact that the poly-pharmacy of the last century was no more needful to the recovery from trifling ailments than the homoeopathic globules of the present, then might the long-contending factions," contraria contrariis," "similia similibus," give place to a more true therapeutic dogma, Infinitessima infinitessimis curantur. One thing is certain in the review we have taken of these "footprints in the sands of time," that we are each and

* The numerous shops for the sale of combs and brushes, perfumes and pomatum, for bleeding, cupping, and tooth-drawing, in combination with the physician's office, too nearly approach Dr. Garth's description of this

"amphibious fry,

Bold to prescribe, and busy to apply."

See 'Dispensary,' canto 2.

all, without exception, in our professional status, more or less the analogues of corruptions and divisions, effected in times past for unworthy purposes, traced only to unworthy examples, and continued for unworthy motives;* and the sooner we shake off the opprobrium the better. We are the followers of ancient medicine in name only; our precedents are drawn from its medieval corruptions. We may confess a veneration for antiquity, but let it not be an admiration which searches, in the obscurity and thick darkness of the cloister, for proscribed limits. to the physician's functions. We would rather revert to a higher and a purer source to the bright morning dawn of Hippocrates-the clear noon-day sun of Celsus-the lengthening shadows of Galen— or the lingering twilight rays of Paulus: to the dicta and practice of these sages, or even the feeble reflection of the Arabic schools, we would concede a greater deference, than to the edicts and canons of

* Not only the divisions of "pure" physician and surgeon are by their compulsory limitations due to these innovators, but further subdivisions may claim the same pure and ancient origin. A recent writer (see Froude's History of England, vol. ii, p. 91), thus describes the "specialities" of the priest-physician at the commencement of the sixteenth century:-" Every monastery, every parish church, had in those days its special relics, its special images, its special something, to attract the interest of the people."

The people brought offerings to the shrines where it was supposed that the relics were of greatest potency. The clergy, to secure the offerings, invented the relics, and invented the stories of the wonders which had been worked by them." See also 'Pettigrew's Superstitions,' antè, pp. 32 and 33.

the Romish church in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. We would obey the precepts, and follow the example, of the "Great Physician" and His apostles, rather than their boasted successors in the dark ages * we would emulate the character of the "good Samaritan," rather than the priest and Levite:† and finally, we would take the evidence of our Government Commission in 1834,‡ rather than of those who would be followers of their "wholly ignorant and utterly incompetent" predecessors. § Why then continue these unhappy divisions, these unworthy

examples, these principles of the dark ages, this "crescens decrescentibus aliis," this heightening the dignity of a few, by the dark ground of a "lower grade"? Let us scale these barriers that shut out the light and truth of the past; let us revert to that glorious Augustan age; let us behold our model in the works of Celsus, as in a mirror, where the reason and experience of the past were concentrated, and from which-illuminated by the clear light of Christian morality-both might have been reflected and expanded in increasing splendour to the present day, but for the dark dense medium through which they had to pass. Let us gather the scattered rays emerging from these deep recesses, recombine them, and illumine them with that light, the withdrawal of which had withered, and well-nigh annihilated the health-giving, life-preserving functions of the phy

sician's office.

The safety of the public, and the honour of the profession, as enjoined by the College charter,* require it; they are synonymous, coexistent, and coextensive; they are twin-born, and must flourish or decline in conjunction.

Well would it have been if all the sanitary measures of the present day were emanating from their rightful source; well if the College members were at work in every village and every court of every city;

* " Quibus tum sui honoris, tum publicæ utilitatis nomine," &c. See Appendix, 16.