Genre:

Letter, Spoof

Subjects:

Medical Practitioners, Medical Treatment, Expertise, Status, Chemistry, Pharmaceuticals

People mentioned:

Justus von Liebig

    Complains to the 'Board of Examiners' at the Apothecaries' Hall that they are not admitting candidates for their license who have certificates from 'a College of Chemistry' in Liverpool. Asks whether it would refuse the certificates of William T Brande and Michael Faraday, and wonders whether an 'affectionate attachment' to its physician-patrons in London hospitals is the 'private motive'. Accuses the Society of Apothecaries, which has opposed the University of London and the Royal College of Surgeons in this matter, of being merely a 'society of medicine-vendors' and a 'fraternity of spurious physicians'. Hopes it is reformed by the legislature, and asks whether medical study should be directed by 'chemists and druggists'.