Page:KIdd 1841 Observations on medical reform.djvu/14

 It is also of importance to observe, although with an indirect reference to the present question, that, very soon after the last unsuccessful attempt of the licentiates, the late lord Stowell, then sir William Scott, expressed a hope, more than once, that the University of Oxford would, by an alteration of the medical portion of its statutes, enable him to say that degrees in medicine were not now conferred, as formerly, without any public proof of the competency of the candidate; but that each candidate was required to undergo such an examination as it became the University to exact. There can be no doubt that, although sir William Scott did not express himself explicitly, the want of such an examination appeared to him a defect, of which, too probably, advantage would be hereafter taken to the prejudice of Oxford. And here it is due to that University to add, that the alteration suggested by sir William Scott has been made; and that the examiners under the new statute have, it is believed, discharged their duty conscientiously to themselves, and justly to the public.

With relation to the general question of Medical Reform, it may be stated, that, for a long period, the attention of the profession was almost exclusively occupied on that subject, by the consideration of the difficulty of admission to the fellowship of the College of Physicians. At present a much wider view is taken of that question; and in order to afford some data on which an opinion may be founded as to the