Report of proceedings before a committee of Her Majesty's most honourable Privy Council, at Whitehall, 16th, 17th, and 18th January 1861, relative to the ordinances of the Scottish Universities' Commissioners, issued on 6th August 1859, and 19th March 1860, to regulate the granting of degrees in medicine and surgery in the University of Edinburgh.

Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of proceedings before a committee of Her Majesty's most honourable Privy Council, at Whitehall, 16th, 17th, and 18th January 1861, relative to the ordinances of the Scottish Universities' Commissioners, issued on 6th August 1859, and 19th March 1860, to regulate the granting of degrees in medicine and surgery in the University of Edinburgh. 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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    duce any other Faculty at Aberdeen; or, if the argument were to require it, it might be assumed that it might mean any Faculty which, according to the present usage and the law of the University, is known as ' licita facultas.' Sir G. Cornewall Lewis.—The Canon Law is not a Faculty ; it is a branch of a Faculty. The question is, Whether, with regard to the Faculty of Medicine, there would not be the power of creating or dividing it into branches ? Mr Roundell Palmer.—I must take the liberty of demurring to that; it is a ' perfectly distinct Faculty,' in the sense in which the word 'Faculty is used in Universities. There is no doubt that the Universities, having competent authority, by taking a subject out of what seemed to be its natural place, may erect a new Faculty anywhere; there is no doubt that Her Majesty may grant a charter to any University, in which she might erect a new Faculty in any branch of knowledge in any of the established Faculties. No one will dispute that. For example, as to Surgery, any competent authority, such an authority as could found a University or found Colleges, might erect Surgery as a Faculty in that University. No one will dispute that. But what I say is, that the Commissioners could not do it ; the University could not do it ; the existing powers and authorities of the University do not extend to that, and it is only in ignorance of, or inadvertence to, the history and meaning of those words Degrees and Faculties, that the reason which we find in the Commissioners' Report ever could have arisen. Then, as far as this example goes,—and we find how far it goes,—it clearly mentions specifically, that degrees are to be ■ granted in those particular Faculties ; that in each Faculty the authorities of that Faculty may grant the degrees which are the usual degrees—that is, the degree of Licentiate, which, I may mention, was a degree used in these times, though in this country it has fallen into desuetude ; the degree of Bachelor is, and the degree of Doctor, which are mentioned also. Degrees may in the same way be granted i quavis alia licitd facilitate' —that is, the ruling Masters or Doctors of a particular Faculty are to grant a degree in that Faculty; that degree is to be co- extensive with the Faculty, and not in any particular branch of knowledge that might be involved or comprehended in the