years will be substituted for 5 or 7; and as in the GuineaBill, a few poor fools will be caught and punished for what even statesmen themselves practise, and are obliged covertly to sanction.-In Towns, draw a distinct line; let none but the examined and licensed practitioner, who has served his Apprenticeship, practise-let him pay his twenty or his fifty guinea fee to be admitted into the order.-But still there must be a loop-hole, a power of escape, a relaxation of rule, which shall admit the humbler practitioner into the practice of humbler life. Of the Surgeon Apothecaries who have had the whole practice of their station, I have known some, whose emolument has not amounted in the last year to £70: surely you must have an exception for a character placed in such a situation, as Bishops suffer School-masters in Cumberland and Wales to slip into orders, to fill livings or Curacies which men of education could not, and would not occupy. But should we on any account suffer the health of a fellow citizen to be tampered with, or injured by ignorant men? as a principle, certainly not-But all principles admit of limitation and modification, and it does not necessarily follow that a man is utterly ignorant, because he has had fewer opportunities of instruction than his fellows, and circumstances will point out where the modifications may be admitted. This is a difficult part of the subject, yet certain I am, that no general enactment will solve it. Let the station be improved as far as it can be, but allow the necessary exceptions. The fact is, the Scotch Doctor in large towns occupies the station of the old Apothecary, and hence it is that the Apothecary is pushed out of his place to make room for the Middle Man. Let the system of License and Examination extend to the Scotch Doctor, let him never have the place of Physician, though you call him Doctor, without them, and the Apothecary will immediately rise. My plan then is simply this-let no one apply for examination, or be capable of being licensed as an Apothecary, who has not served at least 5 years' Apprenticeship to a licensed Apothecary. Let the College, or Society of Apothecaries, in London, be examiners and Licensers within the bills of mortality: out of the bills in each County, let a Quorum, consisting of at least three licensed members, be capable of granting Sub-Licenses for practice in Villages of 1000 population. When the population exceeds 2000, no one to practise, unless regularly licensed by the Apothecaries' College of London. A fee amounting to £ for Licenses, no fee for Sub-Licenses-But these Sub-Licenses not to be introductory to any other than the practice of a particular station. All persons selling Drugs or Medicines in such stations to be Sub-Licensed-in all other stations, the Prescriptions of Physicians only to be made up by licensed Persons under a penalty of But as it will be extremely difficult to legislate so as to regulate the dispensation of Medicines, and to discriminate it from the sale of Drugs, this must be left to the especial wisdom of Parliament. Certainly the Pharmaceutical Poisons should be laid under strict embargo, and the seller of them be placed under a certain responsibility. No persons should be suffered to practise in the Army or Navy, without a License, and as the necessities of service compel these Practitioners to undertake every sort of duty, hence a jumble arises in their minds, and they are very apt to consider themselves as fitted to fill every station; and hence the inundation of Army and Navy Surgeons, as Doctors. If an Army, or Navy Surgeon become really fitted to practise as a Physician, let him be promoted after having undergone examination and received License. But let the License be a Sine qua non; in like manner, let none of the Medical promotion in the Army take place, without examination and License or Testimonium. The present mode of conducting these things is utterly inefficacious; not but a a greater latitude must be allowed here. In fine, if reform be attempted, let it extend throughout, and particularly let it extend to those quarters which are the loudest in their demands and the most inclined to accuse others, little aware how much they need reformation themselves. |