Page:Introductory Address on the General Medical Council, its Powers and its Work.djvu/21

 illustrate my statement that even with its apparently limited powers as a Court, and notwithstanding the apparent inadequacy of the Statutes that govern it, the Council does in fact formulate, and by formulation makes explicit, fresh applications of the law to the growing complexity of modern conditions. And, what is more important, in doing so it carries with it the consensus and approval of "professional men of good repute and competency." The average conscience is quickened, and what was once tolerated is in the end repudiated and discountenanced.

The experience of the Council on the judicial side of its work has been singularly paralleled on the educational side. There, too, though its positive powers seem meagre and inadequate, it has not been prevented from developing an influence which is real and potent.

Its powers only enable it to visit and inspect examinations, and to call for information as to courses of study: it is not authorized to prescribe or to amend either. It cannot itself disallow an "insufficient" curriculum or an "insufficient" test: it can only report its opinion to the Privy Council. These are the limits imposed on its educational action by the terms of the Medical Acts, and at first sight they are narrow enough. But in practice they have proved to be more efficient than they seem in theory; and the "long result of time" has gone far to make them adequate for the purpose. This result has been reached, as in the other case, by a gradual process of evolution, and by the exercise of moral as distinguished from legal pressure. It is dependent in great measure on three factors, one the constitution of the Council itself, another the loyalty and conscientiousness of the teaching and examining bodies, and the third the publicity of the Council's minutes and proceedings.

Let me say a little first about the Constitution of the Council. As you all know, the testing of students in medicine, and the granting, to those who pass the test, of medical diplomas and degrees, have been entrusted by