Correspondence.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2892, 23 May 1878, Page 2

Correspondence.

MEDICAL QUALIFICATION.

(To the Editor of the EVENING Stab.)

Sir, —After five years' apprenticeship, attendance on lectures and hospital practice, I was admitted a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and received my diploma to practice, January 1871. A week after, passed the severe competitive ' examination for a naval surgeon at the Admiralty, and was appointed, Match the 11th, 1861, to 11.M.5. Calypso, Captain (bow Admiral) Montressor, then on the Pacific station. At this time the new Medical Act had just come into force, and no one could even present himself as a candidate for examination at 4k> Naval Board without' being registered, 'for which- I paid a fee of £5 ss, the great object of -registration--being —to-protect —ttreTluly qualified practitioner against the illegal; to protect the public, from being imposed upon. Again, in case of losing diplomas (as in my case), by proving yourself on the Imperial Begister (which'l can do), you j show that you are duly qualified to practice. The object of registration (I take it) is to protect, and not obstruct, the legally qualified. I would also observe that the bye-law of the Colony permits a number of persons who could not practice in Great Britain or Ireland to practice here with impunity, and recover debts in a Court of Law, although: there is no^ Medical Board of which I am aware to test their Ability ; and yet these men are. to rank favorably with those who at great expense have studied the most difficult profession in the world.—l am, &c, It. H. T. Gilbbit, M.R.C.S.England.

P.S. —I wrote the above in consequence of a certain interested individual or in* dividuals striving to cast a slur upon my character, and a doubt upon my qualifications. K.H.T.G.