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EVIDENCE. 249
Extract from the Ninth Annual Report of the Council of the Royal College of Extract from
Surgeons in Ireland, dated April 30, 1852. ot^^Roya^ComI^e
In reference to the attempted violation of the privileges of the College of Surgeons by ^ ^'
the Board of Trinity College, the Council beg leave to report, tliat they have obtained the
following opinion from two eminent Queen's Counsel, which, with the subjoined statement,
they have caused to be printed and circulated among those persons or bodies to whom it
was desirable to communicate correct information on the subject:—
Opinion.
" We have examined the Charters and Statutes of Trinity College, and we do not find Opinion of J. D.
that they confer any express authority on the University to give a qualification for Surgical ThS^yHaganraT!
practice, or that they make any special provision of means for obtaining such a qualification. as to Diploma in
"In the Charter of Ehzabeth (ch. 34, Eliz., and Litersa 13, Car. I.), power is given to Surgery of the Uni-
grant Degrees 'in omnibus artibus et facultatihus-,' and as it may be urged that Surgery is
an Art or Faculty, and reached by these general words, we think it reasonable to inquire
whether, at the time when the College was estabhshed, it can be supposed to have been
one of the ' Arts and Faculties,' to which that Charter was intended to have reference.
And when the condition of the Surgeon of that time, and the object and character of
University Degrees are considered, there appears to be, at least, grave reason for doubting
that such a person could have been in the contemplation of those who framed the Charter.
" The Barbers practising Surgery constituted a Guild in London, and obtained a Charter
from Edward IV. Other Surgeons, not Barbers, having begun to practise, were afterwards
incorporated ivith the Barbers' Company; and although Surgery is in the Statutes of
Jlenry VIII., and subsequently described as an Art, a Faculty, or a Mystery, the busmess
of a Barber receives the same designations. Thus, by the 32 Henry VIII., c. 42, s. 7, it is
provided, that any person, not being a Barber or Surgeon, may keep in his house, ' as his
servant, any person being a Barber or Surgeon, which shall and may use and exercise those
Arts and Faculties of Barbery or Surgery in his master's house, or elsewhere, by his master's
hcence, or commandment,' &c. The Charter of Elizabeth was granted not many years
after the passing of this Act, and the position in which its provisions show the Surgeon to
to have stood would seem to justify the conclusion, that his Profession could not have been
regarded as a liberal Art or Faculty, entitled to the recognition of a University, more than
the occupation of the Barbers to which the same description was applied.
" The 32 Henry VIII., c. 40, s. 3 (Eng.), describes the science of Physic as including a
knowledge of Surgery, and authorizes those who are admitted by the President and
Fellowship of Physicians to practise that science in all its j)arts.
" But the question remains—Whether Surgery in itself was then considered as an Art or
Faculty within the proper care of a University ?
" As there is doubt upon the original meaning and application of the words to which we
have referred, it will be right further to inquu-e, in what way those words have been
practically interpreted by the University itself.
"We find that the 18th chapter of the Litera3, 13 Car. 1., entitled ' De admittendis in
Collegium Professionibus jurisprudentice et Aledicince,' after reciting that ' Professiones
jiirisprudenticB et Medicince et Chartce fundationis istius Collegii et Collegiorum apud
Anglos receptis legibics consentanece sint,' provides that one of the Fellows shall apply
himself to the Profession of Jurisprudence, and another to the study of Medicine. But
there is no reference to Surgery as the subject of special attention.
" Again, in the ' Consuetudines seu Regulse Univ. Dublin,' we find (cap. 5) the form of
admission to the Degree 'Doctoratus in Medicina,' provisions (cap. 10) for obtainingDegrees
' in Medicina,' and supplications for Degrees of Bachelor and Doctor ' in Medicina;' but
we -do not discover any reference to any Diploma in Surgery,
" Amongst the Charters and Statutes of the University to which our attention has been
directed, we do not know that there is any other specific allusion to the Medical Profession;
but, by the Act 25 Geo. III., c. 42, which was passed ' for establishing a complete School
of Physic in this Kingdom,' it is recited, amongst cither things, that three University
Lectureships had been many years theretofore established for the teaching of Anatomy,
Surgery, Chemistry, and Botany; and it is enacted that there shall continue to be three
University Professors for like teaching, to be suj)ported at the expense of the University.
This Act was repealed by the 40 Geo. III., c. 84, which was passed at the instance of the
President and Fellows of the King's and Queen's College of Physicians in Ireland, for the
good government of the College, and the advancement of the School of Physic in the Science
of Medicine, and by it the three University Professors were continued. But. in neither of
those Acts is there any reference to, or recognition of, a right to grant Surgical Diplomas
in the University.
" We have not discovered in the Charters, Statutes, and Documents submitted to us, any
other matter connected with the relation of the University to the Medical or Surgical
Profession, and the matter seems to stand thus That there is not any power expressly
given to that body to grant Diplomas in Surgery ; that, if it possesses a peculiar right to
grant such Diplomas, that right depends on implication arising from its authority to confer
Medical Degrees, or on the meaning which may be attached to the words, ' artibus et
facultatibus,' in the Charters; and that it has not in its own acts or formularies, until
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