Page:Whalley 1822 A vindication of the University of Edinburgh .djvu/37

37 be a gradation of ranks, and I am equally zealous as the Gentleman whose opinions I have been combating, that each individual should keep within the sphere in which he has been educated. He says, page 10, "the rank of the Physician is what it is, from the usefulness it has been of to society;" in this we are agreed, but will he venture to assert, that the Edinburgh M.D. is looked upon as a person of less rank and consequence, than a Gentleman possessing the same degree, from either Oxford or Cambridge, except at either of these places, or in Warwick-lane. Is not an Edinburgh M.D. equally eligible to the situation of Physician to their Majesties, or to any other members of the Royal Family? to fill the office of Physician to the ﬂeet or army, or to any Hospital in London or elsewhere? Is it not equally legal for him to practise in England? Does he not obtain as large a fee, if equally eminent? Or, would an Oxford M.D. if attending a patient along with a Physician of the University of Edinburgh, venture, in consequence of his pretended rank, to sign his name to a prescription, before the Edinburgh man, if the latter were the older Physician? The truth is, that in the eyes of the world, and by the common courtesy of Europe, they are upon an equality.