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ENGLAND.—NORTH AMERICA.
501
where such was obtained : it permitted everyone to practise
medicine and left it to the public to distinguish the good
practitioners from the bad. Under these circumstances
success naturally became the final court of appeal. The
•quacks mistrusting a judgment which offered them so little
security, endeavoured by means of testimonials, in which
•their medical studies and their professional ability were set
forth, to court the popular favour. Various doctors' guilds
and medical schools were prepared to give such testimonials
upon payment of fees, and held examinations, which,
however, were neither arranged on any uniform plan nor
supervised by any central authority, and consequently
gave no guarantee .whatever of the training of the medical
practitioner. Many got diplomas in foreign countries or
endeavoured to procure them by illegal methods; the Arch­
bishop of Canterbury had * also the right of conferring the
degree of Doctor of Medicine. It went so far at last that
it was sufficient for anyone to.be recognized as a doctor
if he were presented as such to the authorities bv two
members of a medical guild.
Such a state of things must have resulted in serious dis­
advantages to the patients upon whom these practitioners
were "let loose." The imperturbable equanimity of the
English people was at length shaken, and Parliament was
induced to find a remedy. The result of its deliberations
was the Medical Act of 1858, in which it was accurately
defined what Corporations should thenceforth have the
right to hold examinations and grant certificates which
should be recognized as valid. These examinations were
rendered subject to the supervision of the General Council
of Medical Education and Registration of the United King­
dom, which body has to take care that the examinations
are conformable to the end in view. Should this not be
the case in any particular instance the General Council
has authority to order a change of examiners, or, if the
cause of complaint is not removed, to take away the
: this is still a prerogative of the See of Canterbury.—E. H. H.