Page:Whalley 1822 A vindication of the University of Edinburgh .djvu/36

36 the labourers going out to harvest, either to Newfoundland, Hudson's bay, the Orkrneys, London, Westminster, or any where else, as doubtless, the same causes at Edinburgh, would produce the same effects they produce at the English Seminaries; or in other words, a paucity of medical instruction would produce empty benches, and about one Candidate for the degree of Doctor of Medicine in a year. I no more approve of medical degrees being granted, without study and strict examination, at the same University that confers them, than the Oxford man does. I would propose that an Act should be passed to prevent any University conferring a medical degree, except after the Candidate has studied a certain appointed time, and passed with approbation, several strict examinations, as to his medical acquirements.

As some few Doctors of medicine have combined the business of an Apothecary, with the practice of a Physician, let such be content with the rank and emolument of an Apothecary; and when Physicians condescend to become Surgeons either in the army or navy, they must no doubt lose their rank, for the time, at least: I am as well aware as any one, that there must