Hence arose the distinction of the three regular orders of the medical profession, namely, physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries ; and it is to the first of these exclusively that the remainder of this article will be dedicated. The degree of bachelor of physic seems to have been known at Oxford soon after the Conquest ; and in the 14th century we find that the degree of doctor of physic was by no means uncommon. (Wood's 'Hist. of Oxford,' vol. 1, p. 765, ed. Gutch ; Chaucer's 'Doctor of Physic's Tale.') The English colleges could not of their own authority prevent any from undertaking to practise, though they had not obtained a degree in physic. OD this account therefore, in the ninth year of the reign of Henry V., 1422, our universities proposed that an act of parliament should be passed ordering that "No one shall use the mystery of physic unless he bath studied it in some university, and is at least a bachelor in that science. The sheriff shall inquire if any one practises in his county contrary to this regulation ; and if any one so practise, he shall forfeit 401. and be im prisoned : and any woman who shall practise physic shall incur the same penalty." (Quoted in Willcock, On the Laws of the Medical Profession,' part ii., p. iii.) This measure had not however the desired effect ; indeed there appears to be some doubt whether it ever obtained the force of an act of parliament, on account of its being referred to the privy council for confirmation. In the third year of the reign of Henry VIII., 1511, was passed an act, which is generally received as the first operative law on the subject, and which takes no notice of the supposed statute of Henry V. By this, which is especially aimed against the witches, and smiths, " who can no letters on the book," it is enacted. that "no person within the city of London, nor within seven miles of the same shall take upon him to exercise or occupy as a physician, except he be first examined,approved, and admitted by the bishop of London, or by the dean of St. Paul's, for the time being, calling to him or them four doctors of physic; upon the pain of forfeiture, for every month that they do occupy as physicians not admitted nor examined after the tenour of this act, of 51.," &c. &c. After making the same enact ment for the different counties, the act goes on to say, " Provided always, that this act nor anything therein contained be prejudicial to the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, or either of them, or to any privileges granted to them." ( Willcock, pp. 6, 7; Goodall's Hist. of the Col. of Physicians,' p. 1-3.) In the fourteenth year of the same reign, 1522, another act was passed, by which the examination of physicians was taken from the persons appointed for that purpose by the former statute, and reposed in the college instituted by a charter of that king. [Puysr cuss, COLLEGE os.] Under this the university graduates who might desire to practise in London were included, as well as the other physicians ; and since that time the legislature has seldom inter fered on the subject.
With respect to the present state of the profession, the first class of medical practitioners in rank and legal pre-eminence is that of the physicians. They are (by statute 32 Henry VIII.) allowed to practise physic in all its branches, among which surgery is enume rated. The law therefore permits them both to prescribe and com pound their medicines, and to perform operations in surgery as well as to superintend them. These privileges are also reserved to them by the statutes and charters relating to the surgeons and the apothecaries.
[SrrnosoN.] Yet custom has more decidedly distinguished the classes of the profession, and assigned to each its peculiar avocations. The practice of the physician is universally understood, as well by their college as the public, to be properly confined to the prescribing of medicines, which are to be compounded by the apothecaries ; and in so far superintending the proceedings of the surgeon as to aid his operations by prescribing what is necessary to the general health of the patient, and for the purpose of counteracting any inter nal disease. It would be impossible to enumerate hero the legal qualifications required by all the different European universities; it will therefore be sufficient to mention these recognised in the British rinmininmt In the university of Oxford, for the degree of Bachelor of Medicine, it is necessary that the candidate should have completed twenty-eight terms from the day of matriculation ; that he should have gone through the two examinations required for the degree of bachelor of arts ; that be should have spent at least three years in the study of his profession; and that he should be examined by the Regius Pro fessor of medicine and two other examiners of the degree of M.D. in the theory and practice of medicine, anatomy, physiology, and patho in materia medico, as well as chemistry and botany, so far as they illustrate the science of medicine; and in two at least of the following ancient medical writers, namely, Hippocrates, Celsus, AretTus, and Galen.
For the degree of Doctor of Medicine, the candidate is required to have completed forty terms from the day of matriculation ; and to recite publicly iu the schools a dissertation upon some subject, to be approved by the Regius Professor, to whom a copy of it is afterwards to be presented.
At Cambridge a student, before he can proceed to the degree of Bachelor of Medicine, must have entered on his sixth year, have resided nine terms, and have passed the previous examination : the necessary certificates, &e. are much the same as those required at Orford. A Doctor of Medicine must be of five years' standing from the degree of M.B.
Since the university of London has been chartered, in 1837, the degrees of Bachelor and Doctor of Medicine, among others, have been conferred there. The following are the regulations for these degrees.
For the degree of Bachelor of Afedieine.—Candidates to have been engaged for four years in professional study at one or more of the recognised institutions, one year at least to be spent at a recognised institution or school in the United Kingdom. They have also to pass two exarnivationa, at the first of which they must produce certificate). of laving completed their nineteenth year; of having taken a degree in nits in this university, or in a recognised university, or of having paused the matriculation examination ; of having been student for two years at one or more recognised medical institutions, subsequently to having taken a degree in arta ; of having attended a course of lectures on descriptive and surgical anatomy, general anatomy and physiology, comparative anatomy, pathological anatomy, chemistry•, botany, tnaterta medics and pharmacy, general pathology, general therapeutics, forensic medicine, hygiene, midwifery, surgery, medicine; of having dissected daring nine months ; of having attended a course of practical che mistry ; and of having attended practical pharmacy. Candidates to be examined in anatomy, physiology, chemistry, structural and phyai ological botany, materie media?, and pharmacy.