device, Aliis inserviendo consumor,' he can hope for no public honour or reward! Let him ruin his fortune or wreck his health for the public weal, he will drop into his grave, so far as regards the ruling powers of his country, unwept, unhonoured, and unsung." If such be the universally acknowledged contrast of the medical profession in this country, not only with that of ancient times, but with that of foreign states at the present day, whence has it arisen, but from the more extensive corruptions and divisions herein depicted, and their consequent degradations? The last great invasion of our ranks-that from which we now more especially suffer had been clearly seen from its commencement! but the only efficient remedy was illegally withholden by those who alone had the power to create and apply it; and thus the College of Physicians became the fountain of corruption rather than of that "purity," to secure which it was originally established. Towards the end of the seventeenth and throughout the whole of the eighteenth century, this increasing evil was repeatedly testified against, yet without avail. "In 1688 the college was admonished by Lord Chancellor Jeffries. A little prior to the year 1700, a petition was preferred to the Lord Chancellor Somers, and to the judges, by several fellows of the College, complaining―That a prevailing party of the College had combined in a fraudulent and surreptitious manner, and made illegal statutes and by-laws, and annexed rigorous penalties," &c. "In 1702, as already stated, they were accused by Sir Richard Blackmore, Dr. Tyson, and others, of narrowing their bottom, and thereby excluding many worthy practitioners of physic in the city, from their society." And in 1768 they were cautioned by Lord Mansfield "against narrowing their grounds of admission so much that if even a Boerhaave should be resident here he could not be admitted into their fellowship." And his Lordship said upon the same occasion, "I would recommend it to the College, to take the best advice in reviewing their statutes; and to attend to the design and intention of the crown and parliament in their institution. I see a source of great dispute and litigation in them as they now stand; there has not, as it should seem, been due consideration had of the charter, or legal advice taken in forming them;" a hint which he repeated in 1771.* At the same time that the restriction, both in number and functions, of the "pure physician " was loudly protested against, no less evident was the simultaneous and consequent encroachment of apothecaries. Stow thus writes in the year 1720:† "It is thought by some that London and the suburbs are overstocked with apothecaries, reputing the number *Ferris's View of the Establishment of Physic,' p. 129. of them to be near one thousand: whereas in Paris there were but fifty-one; in Stockholm and Copenhagen but four or five apiece; and in Hamburg but one apothecary's shop. For it is said, that one apothecary is sufficient to make up the prescriptions of at least three physicians, and those too of good business. In the fourth year of King James I (1607), the king incorporated the apothecaries with the grocers, to be one body corporate and politic. They were again divided from the grocers, and made a body corporate of their own by a charter of the same king (1616), in which charter are all the apothecaries' names inserted, beginning with William Besse, amounting to one hundred and four-which we may conclude to be all of that calling in London and the suburbs at that time.' * Hence it is, that the office of physician has fallen in public estimation, in proportion as it has renounced its high and original destination, and become the victim of these several usurpers at the periods referred to. Hence it is, that insults and ignominy are the portion of men who at the siege of Sebastopol deigned to accept that office, which in ancient times earned rewards and eulogies, the records of which have reached us-in what bitter contrast!—at the present day. Another evil effect of breaking down a distinction * The Census of 1851 gives 3407 surgeons and apothecaries, 2670 druggists, resident within the Registrar-General's Bills of Mortality. that should ever have existed here, as in all other parts of the civilised world, is the entire absence of restraint in the sale of poisons, as well as in the practice of pharmacy. Not only are our bills of mortality increased by the mistakes of careless and ignorant druggists, but, from the great facility given for the criminal use of opium and other poisons amongst infants as well as adults, murder and suicide too frequently result. What fearful disclosures have been made of late years in this respect, too often in connection with those who were filling the double office of physician and pharmacopolite, prescriber and purveyor of the deadly drug! The horrible cases of infanticide in connection with burial clubs, have but recently, through the higher premium of insurance offices, called forth a more scientific and ingenious exercise of the same means of destruction amongst adults. Again, the resort of wretched females to these "doctors' shops," for the wilful destruction of their immature offspring, is another notorious fact, resulting from this compound office, this prescribing and trading of the same individual. Might not all such practices, in a great measure, be prevented were the "litera scripta" of the authorised physician the only warrant for issuing such fatal weapons ? Might not a register be hereby kept of the purpose of the physician, and the faithfulness of the apothecary, as well as a means of indemnity to both, and in some degree of safety to the public? The Health of Towns Commission "* exhibits the state of our manufacturing and mining districts, as regards the more gradual though not less fatal practice of drugging infants. "The child is peevish by day and by night; the nurse hired by its mother to tend her infant, while she labours at the factory, is peevish too, and wants peace; or at night the parents are weary and want rest. Recourse is therefore had, by both nurse and mother, to 'infant's quietness,' one teaspoonful at the age of three months; Godfrey's quietness,' dose twelve to fourteen drops; soothing syrups, &c. Sales of these opiate mixtures for infants by fifteen vendors residing in Ashton-under-Lyne amount to the enormous quantity of nearly seven gallons weekly." Dr. Southwood Smith says that, among the facts. brought to light by the "Children's Employment Commission," one of the most remarkable is the extent to which opium is proved to be used by the poorer classes, and more especially the extent to which it is given by mothers to their children. Amongst others, "Dr. Mitchell, one of the subcommissioners, reports, that the medical witnesses examined by him state that the infants and children are seldom brought to them before they are benumbed and stupified with opiates; the usual preparation given being Godfrey's cordial; a mixture of treacle and opium, known by the name of comfort,' and an * See First Report. |
