The first anniversary meeting of the British Medical Association was

held at the London Coffeehouse on Saturday; Dr. Webster, of Dulwich, in the chair. The proceedings ale fully reported in the Lancet of this week ; from which our account is abbreviated. The business of the meeting having been opened by the Chairman, Mr. Clark read the Report of the Council. It contained a brief history of the objects and progress of the Association, and gave a cheering account of its prospects. One part of the Report stated that the Poor-law had inflicted a severe blow and discouragement on the medical profes- sion ; but, on the motion of Mr. Bainbridge, who said that the Poor- law Commissioners were to blame, not the Act, the word " adminis- tration" was introduced, so us to cast the blame on the persons who carried the act into effect. The following petition to the House of Commons for the institution of a National Faculty of Medicine was then adopted : it states distinctly the chief aim of the Association.

" The humble petition of the undersigned. President and Members of the British Medical A,Aictirtion and others, " Tun, in the opinimi of your petitioners, the present state of medical education and of medical government call tor the serious attention or your Honourable Idolise.

" That, although it is now generally admitted, :mil is the firm conviction of your petitioners, Unit the various branches of medicine and surgery are one and indivisible, that they constitute hat one science, yet there are in the United Kingdom not lees than sixteen or seventeen colleges, homilies, or corporations, having the power of granting degrees or licences, or has ing o■rriefea reqohing different qualifications, and none having the power of conferring the right to pm irctise in every part of the kingdom. " That this want of uniformity in the education of medical practitioners by the va- rious universities and colleges creates jealousies and discontents among graduates and licentiates of those bodies, which are very injurious to the students, and, from an imper- tect knowledge in the public mind of the principles of medical education. tend to bring the science of medicine iatu disr-pitte. by engendering a feeling that difference of edto cation produces a cm-responding difference in practice. "'That, as regards medical government. your petitioners consider the various corpo rations to he inadequate to the wants of the professiou, and iuconsistcut with the spirit of the time* " foal toe Royal College of Physicians, instituted three centuries since. might• at that tionelhave been adapted to the wants of the public and of the profession, but that it is !IOW inadequate to those purposes. " That the Tuners of the Royal College of Surgeons, although confeued at the com- mencement of the present century, are too limited to be of much utility. " That the powers granted by the Aet of Parliament et 1815 to the Apothecaries Company, are inconsistent with the privileges ante Universities and of t he Royal Col- leges; and that, by an extraordinary omission in the Act, chemists and druggists, to whom especially it ought to have applied, are exempted from its operation ; whereby a class of men ignorant of anatomy, surgery, and medicine, have assumed the right to prescribe ;111■1 practise in all turuur and even in dangerous ailments: hence MUCII

mis-

chief has ensued to the lives and health of the cominuaity, particularly of the poorer classes. who caunot discriminate between the ignorant and the properly-qualified practitioner. •• TLIAL yuur petitioners, having associated themselves for the pnrposes of extending the education irwl acquirements wet of promoting the respectability of the profession, and having duly considered the foregoing inconsistencies, anomalies, and grievances iffeeting it, are imainitiously of °pink° that the must efficient remedy for them 'would be the union of tiled are called the thiee brauchcs of the plofessiou iuto one faculty or uational iustitutiuu,of medicine, Trending over and governing the whole body.

CO,

- That they„therefore, humbly pray your Honourable House to be pleased to take is matter into deliberation; and that a bill may be passed by your Honourable House lizaeting the union of the three branches or the profession into one faculty or national zioritation of medicine, all the members of which shall be educated and examined alike. sad possess equal rights, privileges, and immunities; that they shall :fa called by the Man name or title, but be atluwed to practise either the whole or any part of the weirenee of medicine. That a senates or governing bolt be elected at defined Intervals by the whole of `he rcemters of the faculty, and that such senates be empowered to make and enforce fat ebsersance of such laws for the goveinineet of the members as it may from time to rime deem meet ; end that it may posse,s power to confer degrees and grant licences to

practise in all parts of the Kiiigdorn. " That a register may be made of all persons now practisin; the science of medicine ;

end that bum and after a certain day to be eppointe.1 by Honourable House, no perstia s hose nan,e shell nut be in such register, be ',emitted to practise, or call him- self by the name or title to be applied to all recogruz .4.1enibors of the faculty, under II settle peualty. " That the senates may be empowered to add to such register the names of all persons who may be able to prove t hat they were 1043115 Irinkilln to practise before the passing Act, and to remove from it C.o.,- of any persons who may be satisfactorily ,roved to have been placed in it wit!:o;.t having first ree.eleed a qualification from the KUTAi Colleges of Physicians sac400ir-, or the Company of Apothecaries, or who veiie not engaged in actual la ae, ,i'el,eft,re the lit day of August 1515.-

Several gentlemen spoke with severity of the practice of the Poor- saw Commissioners in obtaining medical attendance at workhouses by gontract. Mr. Crisp read the following extracts from a report of the Committee oppeinted to inquire into the operation of the Poor-law on the !nolo ssion, to show bow much was required for very small pay from the pr : sons employed under the Act to attend upon the sick poor.

" Wagstaffe, parochial surgeon to one district of St. Mary's, Lambeth,

nutaining a .population of 36,000, the total population of the parish being 110,000, receives 1051. per annum, which sum includes operations, midwifery, inches, bandages, surgical instruments, &c. &c. During last year he saw 4,620 eases of illness, made 20,000 visits, sent 16,000 mixtures, 12,000 powders sad 30,000 pills. (Loud laughter, and cheers.) " Mr. Clarke is parochial surgeon to St. Olave's Union, with a salary of 901. per annum, including extras. The Union consists of three parishes, for one of which he received 90/. before the new Act came into operation. During the last twelve months he has seen 2,000 cases ; 564 in the poorhouse, and 1,436 mt. The appointment was obtained by tender."

Mr. Ilowell observed, that while the Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons and the Apothecaries Company were allowed to pursue their present plans, little service could be done to the profession by the Lon- don University.

The Chairman said, that it would be a useless body, unless power to license to practise were conferred on it in that case, few would go to he present incorporated companies. Mr. Hooper spoke of the inefficiency of the Apothecaries Com- ?any— The public were great sufferers from the number of ignorant persons who were practising aud destroying lives every day. Every man having a large practice in London, must be aware that chemists were continually pre- serilans for the poor. The disease was thus allowed to creep insidiously oo, till parties, no longer able to go to the shop, sent for the chemist to visit them. The chemist replied, that the law did not allow him to go out— that they must send for a surgeon: the surgeon was called in just before death, and then had the credit of killing the patient. A great many who were only studying the profession, not in practice, had establishments, which they visited daily and hourly. The Apothecaries, Company were jealous enough of a man, hawever well educated, who was practising in virtue of a degree from a Scotch University. If they could find such a man, they pounced upon him, and brought an action against him ; but of prescribing chemists, who were en- tirely ignorant of medicine, they took no notice, because they were not con- sidered worth powder and shot. lie was sure that thousands of individuals were sacrificed in London, from ignorant people being allowed to practise. ("Hear, hear !".) He was lately called upon to see a woman who was nearly suffocated. On arriving at the hhuse, he found two chemists attending her. They had given her a gargle, from which the mouth and fauces had become so swollen that she could scarcely breathe. They quietly backed out of the case, and the whole responsibility consequently devolved upon him. Had she died, he would probably have had the credit of killing her.

A petition to Parliament was agreed to, complaining of the Poor- law, aid suggesting the establishment of a Medical Board, elected by profession, to net in concert with the Poor-law Commissioners, and to superintend and regulate the duties and emoluments of parochial aurgeons.

Thanks were voted to Mr. Wakley, for his exertions in carrying through Parliament the bill which secured remuneration to medical witeez,ses summoned to give evidence in Coroners' Courts ; and after votes of thanks to the Chairman and Council, most of the gentlemen adjourned to the large room to dine ; Dr. Webster again presiding. Several speeches were delivered after the cloth had been removed. In proposing " Prosperity to the British Medical Association," the Chid man announced that they were proceeding most prosperously- " I consider it as a most important step to have thus organized ourselves in sight ram nine months,—for I only date the institution as having been organized since January last; and to have rallied around us such a numerous and intellec- tual assembly as I now see before me. At the same time, I feel assured, that as our ob: ;,ta became known, we shall increase in numbers, in strength, and in esti- mation. And here some explanation may not be irrelevant respecting the constitu- tion of your Association. It owes its origin to accident lather than design. The injei ios and indignities which the Poor-law Amendment Act bad heaped On the pi ofession, and which, I regret to say, increase rather 'than diminA, drew to- gc Cher many general practitie nets; and, in considering how these. grievances could no remedied, others presented themselves, which it was evident that union and resolution were essential to remove. It was there fore resolved to form an associa- /ion of general practitioners, as one section of the profession, leaving it to the at het departments to pursue their own plane, or to follow our example. But chi. gave origin to misunderstandings, which we had no idea of creating, and I fear that not a few wilful misstatements were made as to our objects. We were represented as wishing to overturn all order and distinctions in the profession ; but so far from this being our object, our earnest wish is to establish order, method, simplicity, and good government, out of the confusion which at pre- sent prevails in our ranks, and in the laws which govern the profession. We were said to be exclusive, and to intend not to meet physicians and surgeons in consultation, with other such ridiculous charges. having no such foolish views in prospect, but each possessing the omens cowcia recti, we enlarged our plan, and opened the Association to every legally qualified member of the profession ; and we have since proposed a corresponding alteration in the election of the council. our objects are union and harmony in the profession, and we wish to draw into one focus all its liberal members, whether physicians, surgeons, or general practitioners. It is true that we shall not attract nien:bers by a false eclat at our luectiogs. We publish no transactions,' and we have not yet taken up scientific questions, because most, if not all of us already belong to societies where that is done ; but we consider that, by reforming our governing institutions, we are laying the very beat foundations for the advancement of medical science."

One chief cause of the evils complained of by medical men, was the exclusion of the great body of them from all management of their own affairs- " We have no voice in framing our laws, or in electing our rulers. We are, in fact, in a debased and degraded state in this respect, and few have, mai lately, felt interested in that from which it has been the policy of both the Colleges to exclude nearly the entire profession. The College of Physicians

permits only the Fellows to legislate, whereby three-fourths of the practising

physicians in London are shut out from all share in the government of their own College. This is bad enough for a scientific body, in times when the members of every petty trading corporation elect their own rulers. But this is liberality personified, in comparison with the laws of the College of Surgeons, by which twenty-one self-elected councillors assume to themselves the light

to legislate for 10,000 or 12,000 members, who have contributed largely to

its revenues, without having the slightest control in its government or over its funds. (Applause.) With the laws of the Apothecaries Company as a trading body, we have no concern ; but as as body which administers the act of 1835, we have unfortunately too much to do. On a former occasion I said that they were unfit to be entrusted with legal powers over the profession. I speak

not of them individually, but as a hotly ; and I also said that they had shows

much greater alacrity in prosecuting graduates and members of the Colleges than the ignorant and incompetent. ("Hear, hear !") I award to the ' Com- pany' the credit of good intentions, and I allow that the act has done gond by subjecting one class of practitioners to examination ; but it has increased ten. fold the evil that it was meant to suppress, by creating shoals of prescribing, practising, and visiting chemists, who are wholly ignorant of medicine. This state of things is unparalleled in any other civilised country."

Dr. Granville, Dr. Marshall Hall, Dr. Ryan, Professor Grant, Dr. Harrison, and Mr. Hilles, severally addressed the company. One of the toasts most heartily drunk, was " The Medical Press;'' when due laud was given to Mr. Wakley, as editor of the Lancet. Among the gentlemen who sent apologies for non-attendance, were Dr. Wardrop, Mr. Liston, Mr. Grainger, Mr. Farr, Dr. James Johnson, and Mr. Salmon. The room of meeting was crowded to excess.