titioner has descended to the juggling of the conjurer, to the mean artifice and cunning of the mechanic; and has admitted into his fraternity the unlettered clown, and the designing charlatan.* Let the medical profession be honest to itself, and honorable in the exercise of its functions; let it require earnestly and unreservedly from the legislature a test that shall prove the qualification, both in knowledge and character, of every individual applying to be admitted into its order; then will it be found that the philosopher and the wit, the sage and the savage, will equally reverence a body of men whose avocation it is to remove or soften the "ills that flesh is heir to." Among the varying and discordant opinions, and the multiform projects, that have arisen for remodelling or meliorating the condition of the medical faculty in the British empire, it becomes peculiarly our duty to notice, as one of the novelties of the present period, the effort now making by the APOTHECARIES to restore their avocation to its former honors and importance. This effort has led to the preceding remarks; and we feel a conviction that, whenever the whole body of the medical profession honestly, liberally, and earnestly, applies to the legislature, the application will produce a statute law, which will remove most occasions for dispute, and prevent the ridiculous and scarcely-honest contentions that are found among physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries. And this conviction we feel, because we cannot suppose the government so blind to the interests of the pcople, and so negligent of the desires and claims of an extensive and useful class in society, as to refuse what would then be reasonably required. But, while the profession is *We would prove, if it were not already enough known, that physicians of reputation have given certificates to Jew pedlars, livery servants, fortune-tellers, and other vagabonds, by which such persons have been enabled to procure the degree of DOCTOR of PHYSIC, from universities where no other qualification is required than a written recommendation. Feeling enough of l'esprit du corps to advocate always the honor of the profession, we wish such things had not happened; but, having happened, the same feeling compels us to censure their impropriety. unwisely unwisely divided against itself, can it be expected that the great council of the nation will listen to its propositions. Unfortunately, however, there does exist, at present, a permanent source of divided interests. The college of Physicians of London has a Charter, considered to be fully equal to all its own particular and individual purposes: the College of Surgeons is under the same circumstance. Can it then be supposed that these bodies will join in any mea sure that shall have even a remote tendency to loosen, or to alter in anywise, their present privileges? Every measure that touches, however lightly, on their chartered rights, will be resisted, and effectually resisted. Under these exist ing circumstances, it remains to the Apothecaries to look to their own particular condition. But a difficulty here arises ; and it must be removed before this body can go to the legis lature with a reasonable prospect of success. Who are the Apothecaries of Great Britain? Are they persons practising pharmacy only; or are they persons who join with the pharmaceutic art the practice of physic, surgery, and obstetrics? Those who practise pharmacy alone are few in number, compared with those who exercise all the branches of the profession. Every city, every town, and almost every village, in England and Wales, presents one or more of these general practitioners: but will they be legally designated by the term apothecary? If an act be procured purporting to regulate the charges, protect the rights, and define the privileges, of the apothecary only, will it extend beyond the Apothecaries' Company, and not leave the great body of useful practitioners unprotected in its rights, and uncertain of its privileges? We do not believe that the Committee at the Crown and Anchor, who solicit the attention of the Apothecaries of England and Wales to their "Report relative to the present state of Pharmacy," mean this restrictive effect; but it is essential that the bill to be founded on this Report should unequivocally remove the difficulties which press upon the actual medical practitioners, and that these practitioners be satisfied that it will so operate. This circumstance being attended to, unfortunately an opposite difficulty arises. If, by extending its view, this committee comprehends, in its projected reform, the practice of surgery; how will it avoid pinging on the corporate rights of the College of Surgeons, and calling forth the opposition of that body? These are points of great intricacy, but of vital importance, and must be disposed of before effectual relief can be obtained. "Sed motos præstat componere fluctus.” The term Apothecary is too restricted, no definition will make it comprehend the Surgeon and Accoucheur. The term Surgeon belongs exclusively to the College of Surgeons, and cannot be employed on this occasion. The mixed practitioners, as they have been quaintly though aptly called, who make up nearly the whole of the country medi. cal faculty, and a great majority of those in the town, must be designated, legally, by some new term. They neither range under the banners of Pharmacopola Verus, the True Surgeon, nor the Physician. They are a body distinct from either, but combining the energies, and exercising the functions, of the three. The mass of the population is submitted to their care, with few exceptions indeed. This circumstance alone, were it not a fact that they have generally a most extensive view of the whole system of medical practice, will mark them as of great consideration to a wise government. If the health of the community is entrusted to them, how essential does it become that they should be qualified for the important charge? The first object of an act of the legislature, designed to meliorate the condition of the SURGEON-APOTHECARY, or mixed practitioner, should regard, as the suprema ter, the health of the people, by instituting a court of examiners, with powers to admit or reject those applying for licences to practice. This, as going directly to the creation of practitioners qualified for the important functions of the Physician, Surgeon, Apothecary, and Accoucheur, should be the foundation of all subsequent proceedings. To make a law to protect the rights and define the privileges of per sons sons incapable of performing the functions of the station into which they have obtruded, is an absurdity. It would do worse than suffering the mischief to remain, it would protect and countenance the malpractice of confident ignorance. From among whom this court of examiners should be selected, and with whom the power should be placed, will be matter of detail. The second object of this act should be to define the rights and privileges of the body of practitioners, ascertained to be qualified, and legally authorised to practise, under the primary principle; and to distinctly detail their claims on the public. Keeping these fundamental principles in view, it will not seem difficult to men of business, thoroughly versed in the modes of town and country practice, to form a digest or code, that will meet every difficulty, and subdue every opposition. Having provided the means for raising a body of practitioners duly qualified for exercising the important trust reposed in them, defined their rights and privileges, and shewn the manner in which they are to be remunerated, the object appears to be accomplished. Not so, we fear. Before this desirable and long-wished-for consummation shall arrive, the committee of Apothecaries will have much to contend with, many jarring interests to reconcile, jealousies to subdue, fears to quiet, and confidence to gain. We have before observed, that the College of Physicians of London, and the College of Surgeons, feel every attack on their privileges like a wound. They will resist the efforts of the committee with all the power that influence, opinion, and talent, confers. If these mighty hosts oppose, the little phalanx of Apothecaries must be conquered, unless it be reinforced with the strong arm of the country practitioners. When the legions marched to Rome, they gave away the empire. It has been a painful reflection, that the candid and modest proposal, made by a gentleman at the meeting on the 6th of November, to admit " as a favor, a compliment," some country practitioners into the committee, was rejected. Rejected not, indeed, with the gracefulness of conciliation, but with the cold and mistaken assertion that they would be be useless, because they would not attend; or with the contradictory opinion, that the larger the committee the less would it accomplish. That country practitioners, when properly incited, will not attend the committee, is not quite so certain, as that it may be too unwieldy for business. Already it is so, with the misfortune of having all its ponderosity on one side. Why should not some of the household troops of the present committee, who know not or feel not the auxiliary value and the interests of the country prac titioners, retire to make room for those who will support the great cause in the distant provinces; who appreciate the expectations, the weight, and the resources, of their country brethren; and who will have the confidence of that important body, the aggregate of which they assist in making. There is one point above all, which the committee should avoid as the rock that will wreck all its hopes-suspicion of its integrity. Already it has gone abroad that trade rather than science is the object of the committee. If its meetings and its views have yet reached the remote provinces, it may be assured that simultaneous with that diffusion, has been spread the leven of apprehension. The demon of Discord "malum quo non aliud velocius ullum, Mobilitate viget, viresque acquirit eundo ; Parva metu primò, mox sese attollit in auras, will extend her malignant influence to the remotest nooks of the island if her horn sounds on the Welsh mountain, its blast will reverberate among the northern lakes. If we could believe that the committee had a view to the benefit of the Apothecaries' Company only, or principally, and designed to avail itself of the weight of the mixed practitioner to carry this project, we should most heartily despise it, and would endeavor, by every means given to us, to defeat its design. We believe otherwise. We think it ho nestly laboring for the melioration of the condition of the SURGEON-APOTHECARY, for the benefit of science, and for the good of society. It is not enough, however, that it be virtuous, it must not be suspected. And |