THE NEW MEDICAL ACT: With Explanatory Notes FOR THE GUIDANCE OF THE MEDICAL PRACTITIONER BY R. M. GLOVER, M.D., F.R.S.E., LICENTIATE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND J. B. DAVIDSON, M.A., OF LINCOLN'S-INN, BARRISTER-AT-LAW. LONDON: HENRY RENSHAW, 356, STRAND. 1858. ΤΟ THOMAS WAKLEY, ESQ. IN TESTIMONY OF HIS UNTIRING EFFORTS IN THE CAUSE OF MEDICAL REFORM, AND IN SUPPORTING THE DIGNITY AND ADVANCING THE INTERESTS OF THE MEDICAL PROFESSION, The Work is Dedicated BY R. M. GLOVER, M.D., F.R.S.E. INTRODUCTION. BOTH the parties whose names are appended to this work had separately thought of publishing a copy of the New Medical Act, with notes, and had spoken to the publisher on the subject. But it occurred to him that it would be preferred by the professions of Law and Medicine to have a work before them embodying the views taken of the Act by members of both professions. It is not requisite here to remind the reader of all the attempts at medical legislation which have been made in recent years. The failures which have taken place show the great difficulty which existed of combining the establishment of sound legislation with due attention to the preservation of existing rights, and at the same time account for some obscurity in certain clauses of the present bill, which we have endeavoured to clear up as much as possible; but in all probability more than one judicial decision will be required before the due legal interpretation of some of the clauses can be determined. The present Act bears some analogy to the Apothecaries' Act of 1815. At that time numbers of persons were practising as apothecaries, and, in point of fact, virtually as physicians and surgeons, without legal qualification. The object of that Act was to secure at least a minimum qualification for such persons as might be required for the general service, so to speak, of the public; and to avert opposition as much as possible, and to obtain the desired result in the readiest way, the Act was made non-retrospective, and the examinations were entrusted to the Apothecaries' Society. The first result there was, that, for the first time, there was created throughout the whole of England |