How surgery became a profession in London / by D'Arcy Power.

  • Power, D'Arcy, 1855-1941.
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: How surgery became a profession in London / by D'Arcy Power. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    be governed by the two Surveyors only, and in like manner the surgeons by their two Masters. The interregnum was to be as short as possible, and if a Bachelor had been appointed to the post of Rector he was to give place to a Doctor as soon as one had been elected. No one was to be chosen Rector, a Sur- veyor of Physic or a Master of Surgery unless he had been born within the realm of England, and an effort was to be made to choose for each office the wisest, ablest, and most discreet per- sons of mature age. No surgeon was to be allowed to practise in London unless he had been examined by the Rector, the two Masters of Sur- gery, and the majority of the craft, after which he was to be presented and licensed by the Mayor and Aldermen, under penalty of ioo shillings fine. Every surgeon called upon to treat a case which seemed likely to end in death or permanent disablement was obliged to call into consultation the Rector of Medicine, or one of the two Masters of Surgery, within three days of his first attend- ance, and a like course was to be taken by every surgeon be- fore he performed any serious operation. This regulation was made in the interests of the surgeon as well as of the patient, for it is expressly laid down that the Rector, Surveyors, and Masters shall be always ready to attend these consultations, without any fee, under pain of 20s. The Rector of Medicine, however, is to give no opinion in a surgical case without the consent of the Masters of Surgery. A surgeon duly convicted on credible evidence of mal- praxis, or of infamous professional behaviour, was to be brought before the Mayor, who should punish him with fine, imprison- ment, or “ puttynge him out from alle practice in chirurgery for a tyme or for evermore after the quantite and qualite of his trespass ” A patient needing a surgeon, who had fallen into such po- verty that he was unable to pay a fee, was to appeal to the Rector and the Masters of Surgery, who would assign him a good practitioner “ busily to take heed of him without expence The Rector, the two Surveyors of Physic, and the two Mas- ters of Surgery, associating with themselves two apothecaries,