MEETING

OF THE

GENERAL MEDICAL COUNCIL.

HELD AT THEIR HOUSE, OXFORD-STREET, W.

SIXTH DAY.-WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24. THE Council resumed its sittings in committee on the Reports of Examinations. The first that came up this morning for consideration was that of Trinity College, Dublin.

After some remarks on and explanations of the report, which were mostly inaudible,

Dr. STOKES said it gave him great pleasure to peruse the report of the visitors. The visitors had suggested that the time devoted to the viva voce clinical examination was too short, but he was of opinion that a judgment as to the mens medica of the candidate could be better arrived at by a written description of a case than by answers to any number of oral questions. He was further of opinion that the proposed exclusion of the professorial element from examining boards would imply a want of confidence in the morality of the examiners.

Dr. STORRAR did not think it would be expedient to allow a candidate to come up at various times for different parts of his examination. This would rather favour a superficial knowledge, which could be obtained very easily by the system of cramming.

Dr. HALDANE, while expressing, as one of the visitors, his great satisfaction with the oral clinical examination, was of opinion that the time allowed for it was, without doubt, rather too short.

Dr. AQUILLA SMITH thought that quite sufficient time was given, and remarked that the best papers were very often written in the shortest time.

Sir DOMINIC CORRIGAN was of opinion that if visitations were continued it would be necessary to instruct the visitors as to the special matters to be inquired into. He had found, on examining the reports, that there was no identity of purpose in them, and no similarity of information. There was a regulation of Trinity College permitting any person to attend the medical lectures on payment of a fee of five shillings, and this was a regulation to which he thought the visitors should have called attention; as also to the fact that a student was permitted to take a licence in medicine after four years' study in medicine and two years' study in arts; and that on completing his arts course and taking a degree of M.D. he was not subjected to a further examination in medicine.

Mr. QUAIN believed that in other universities a medical degree might be taken without any degree in arts at all; so that there was no transgression whatever on the part of Trinity College.

Dr. STORRAR said that at the London University a student was not compelled to take a B.A. degree before taking the degree in medicine.

Dr. HUMPHRY stated that the case was the same at Cambridge, but candidates had to pass an examination very similar to that required for the arts degree.

Dr. ROLLESTON said that at Oxford candidates were required to go through the arts curriculum, and also to take the degree. He thought the Council ought to take into consideration the question of permitting different parts of examinations being taken at different times, because it was a practice which favoured the grinding system, and often led the examiners to intensify their questions to such an extent as to make them beyond the capacity of average students.

Mr. MACNAMARA said that the examination for the licentiate was exactly similar to that for the degree of M.B.

Sir DOMINIC CORRIGAN said that, as he before stated, there was no special examination for the degree of M.B., but that it could be taken by completing the arts course and paying the requisite fees.

Sir WILLIAM GULL said that the examination for the licence was also an examination for the M.B. degree. The only difference between the two was that the one student had a longer career at the University than the other.

It was resolved that the report of the visitors should be sent to Trinity College for consideration and remarks.

The Report of the Visitors of the Examinations of the Durham University then came up for consideration.

Dr. PYLE, referring to a remark that the examination was VOL. II. 1875. No. 1305.

conducted exclusively by the teachers of the University, said that that was an accidental circumstance, and was not in accordance with the system usually adopted. For the last thirty years the University had one or two examiners in the arts course from Oxford, so that he could hardly understand why a graduate of the University, being a candidate at the examination, should have shown such deficiencies as had been alluded to in the composition of his thesis.

Dr. WooD thought it a very remarkable thing that a university should confer the degree of M.A. upon a man who was ignorant of composition and spelling. This was neither creditable to the University nor to the profession. He maintained, whatever had been said to the contrary, that the medical examiners ought to reject any candidate who showed a deficiency of general education. When illiterate candidates who had obtained arts degrees appeared at professional examinations the examiners should ascertain who had been the examiners in general education, and report the result of their inquiry to the Council, who would then endeavour to rectify the matter.

Mr. TURNER said that a candidate could present himself a second time for practical chemistry on condition that his papers in anatomy and physiology were considered good, and his paper work in chemistry fair. Under the circumstances, however, this candidate, who was said to have made a very indifferent dissection, should not have been allowed a second chance. No thesis should, in his opinion, be accepted unless it was creditable in a literary as well as a scientific point of view. He could not agree with Sir Dominic Corrigan that the writing of a thesis was a sham. At Edinburgh a candidate was required to certify on his honour that his thesis was of his own composition, it being necessary that such thesis should be good in point of literary composition, and that it should contain the results of the writer's own inquiries and observations. Dr. STORRAR said that to the University of Durham was due the merit of introducing the system of practical examinations at a very early period. It was really necessary that there should be outside examiners. The University of Durham had hitherto resisted the temptation of granting the old-fashioned St. Andrews' degrees, which was something to its credit.

Dr. HUMPHRY said that the circumstance mentioned in the "hash report, that the candidate who had made such a of his dissection had obtained ninety-three marks out of one hundred for his paper on oratory, showed the importance of dissections.

The PRESIDENT said that some fifteen years ago he visited the University of Durham, and a similar circumstance to that mentioned by the visitors with regard to the examination in arts then occurred; and on that occasion he used almost the same words as the visitors had done-namely, that it was hard upon the professional examiners that they should be placed in the dilemma of passing persons who could not spell or write English, and who ought never to have been granted an arts degree. An indelible impression was then made upon his mind, in consequence of which he was led in his address to He remark upon the condition of the arts examinations. thought that sooner or later it would be incumbent upon the Council to consider whether these examinations came properly up to their requirements.

It was agreed that the Council should adjourn for an hour, during which time several committees would meet for the dispatch of business.

The Council having reassembled,

Dr. ANDREW WOOD moved that the resolutions of the Committee of the Council with reference to the reports of the visitors should be adopted.

Sir WILLIAM GULL seconded the motion.

Dr. THOMSON moved an amendment to the effect that the resolutions be adopted, with the exception of that passed with reference to the Royal College of Physicians, which was the only body whose attention had been specially directed to deficiencies in the examinations. The proceeding was, in his opinion, a partial one, and he thought the better way would have been to send down the reports without comment, as they had not yet been taken into consideration by the bodies themselves, and it was therefore inexpedient to make special allusions to them. It was undesirable, he thought, to single out one body as the subject of remark.

Mr. QUAIN seconded the amendment.

Sir WILLIAM GULL thought it was not enough to send down simply the reports of the visitors, and complained of the