An address to the members of the Royal College of Surgeons of London, on the injurious conduct and defective state of that corporation : with reference to professional rights, medical science, and the public health / by John Armstrong.

  • Armstrong, John, 1784-1829.
Date:
1825
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An address to the members of the Royal College of Surgeons of London, on the injurious conduct and defective state of that corporation : with reference to professional rights, medical science, and the public health / by John Armstrong. 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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    4 ADDRESS. Gentlemen, There is a species of corporate oppression which, though destructive to individuals and de- trimental to the public, has not yet been made the subject of inquiry, simply because its victims have silently sunk under it, or have at least never complained through the press. It has been long proved by practical men as well as philoso- phers, that commercial monopoly is adverse to the general welfare, however it may be cherished by a few interested persons; but it still remains to be more distinctly shown, that the attempt to mo- nopolize certain kinds of knowledge is equally in- jurious to the arts and sciences, by precluding an open, honorable, and ardent competition. It has become a trite observation, that men do in corporate capacities what they would blush to own in the private intercourses of life. Yet probably, after all, the discrepancy is rather apparent than real, the plastic materials of the natural character being merely moulded into another form by the varied occasion. In private concerns, the conduct of calcu- lating men is circumspect, and the source of it often a 2! I