John Kidd

“ The harbour of Ramsey is a small cove excavated in a mass of black schist, and situated near the southern extremity of the eastern front; advancing from which towards the west, and then ascending the southern beacon from its northern side, you pass over an apparently conglomerate rock made up almost entirely of large pebble shaped masses of white quartz. From the uniformity of colour in this rock, and from its general appearance, a doubt at first sight arises whether it is really a mechanical conglomerate or the result of a peculiar chemical conformation. ”

“ The most prominent and most general object of the advocates of Medical Reform appears to be a uniformity of qualification, to be tested by a public examination, in all the candidates for a license to practise medicine. ”

“ The rock constituting this summit, as may be satisfactorily ascertained by insensibly graduating specimens, is of the same nature with those already spoken of; though at first sight, and especially in particular parts, apparently very different. The hornblende gradually diminishing in its proportion, or being intimately blended with the substance of the felspar, often merely imparts an obscure shade of green to the whole mass; the presence of which colour principally assists the eye in recognizing the true nature of the rock ”

“ To the demand that of every candidate for a medical license, such an examination should be required as might shew a due qualification to practise either as a "physician," or a "surgeon," or as a "general practitioner," there does not seem any reasonable objection; nay, it is quite expedient that every candidate for a medical license should be so qualified. For, although it is true, as is observed in a very judicious and candid article on Medical Reform in the "Quarterly Review" of December 1840, that very few physicians practise surgery in this country ”

“ The cement of those parts which resemble a conglomerate appears to be in a great measure of chemical origin; containing minute crystals of semitransparent felspar, with small particles of glassy quartz. It seems worthy of remark, that in those parts of the rock which resemble a conglomerate, the pebble-shaped nodules of quartz are very frequently of the same purple colour as the schist. The sand of this beach when viewed through a microscope is seen to be a mixture of fragments of shells with small particles of variously coloured quartz and slate. ”

“ And this circumstance affords perhaps the best apology for any one within the pale of the profession, who, as in the present instance, proposes to offer his observations on the subject of Medical Reform: for thus other individuals, and more especially those from whom alone any national legislative measure can proceed, may probably be induced to examine the question more accurately, and be enabled to elicit more appropriate and important information. ”

“ The hornblende of the summit of this hill is indistinctly crystallized, and of a dark and dull olive green colour; generally very uniform in its character; and so closely compacted with the felspar that the fracture passes indiscriminately through both. The rock itself is remarkably hard, and has that degree of toughness which is characteristic of the class of rocks called by Wallerius Saxa Cornea, and Corneus Trapezius; which rocks, as may be collected from the volcanic dissertations of Dolomieu and Ferrara, contain hornblende as a principally constituent part. ”

“ The English Universities grant medical degrees, with a license to practise throughout England, except in London, and within seven miles around; to practise within which limits even Cambridge and Oxford medical graduates must have the license of the London College of Physicians. The license, however, of Cambridge and Oxford graduates to practise elsewhere carries with it no protection, for any one, qualified or not, may do the same. ”

“ David's slate quarry, by a low and narrow ridge of rocks projecting into the sea; and is terminated at its southern extremity by high cliffs. Towards the land it is bounded principally by heaps of sand; interspersed with low rocky cliffs, which rise higher and higher in advancing to the southern extremity; at which point the rocks are particularly interesting from their variety; passing, sometimes abruptly, from the coarsest grained conglomerate, as from its appearance it might be called, to the finest schist. ”

“ From the summit of Carnllidy the ground gradually slopes towards the west for a few hundred yards, and then, again rising, forms the promontory called St. David's Head.
The ascent to the two hills above mentioned, both on the north and on the south side, is formed by highly inclined strata of a slaty rock which would be commonly called grau-wacke, a term in the present instance used only for the purpose of general description; and the nearly precipitous cliffs, by which the greater part of the adjoining coast is bounded for some miles, appear to consist principally of the same kind of rock. ”

“ And it ought to be particularly noticed, that although each of those judges gave a decision against the licentiates, yet they each observed, that, according both to the spirit and the letter of the original statutes of the College, the licentiates were admissible to the fellowship after due examination: but, inasmuch as the fellows were empowered to make by-laws, and the licentiates had accepted their license under those by-laws, the College could not be compelled to admit those as fellows who had accepted their license under laws which excluded them from the fellowship. ”

“ And not only the candidate himself, if found fit, has a personal right, but the public has also a right to his service; and that, not only as a physician, but as an officer in the College in the offices to which he will upon admission become eligible."
Lord Mansfield, having expressed his opinion on the same occasion, that the practice of establishing licentiates probably grew out of what he denominates an "illegal by-law, which formerly had restrained the number of the fellows to twenty," allowed that "the College, as now constituted, is at present to be considered as the body corporate." ”

“ The rocks which constitute these hills bear no marks of regular stratification; rarely support even a slight degree of vegetation; and when compared with the surrounding surface, appear as so many nuclei, about which is arranged a very curiously diversified series of highly inclined strata of a kind of slate. The constituent parts of these insulated rocks are felspar and hornblende; and the general character of them is crystalline: but the felspar rarely if ever occurs in distinct crystals ”

“ The general character of the rocks in the neighbourhood of Treginnys is of that equivocal nature alluded to in the beginning of these notes: here and there they assume the appearance of a compact earthy felspar of an olive-green colour, and then probably often contain epidote, compact veins and crystals of which I saw in more than one instance. In one place this compact green rock occurs in angular columns horizontally aggregated, and forming a part of the cliffs on the north side of the harbour. ”

“ With respect to the future condition of existing institutions, there appears nothing in the least derogatory to their dignity; nor, which is of much more consequence, to their professional utility and efficiency, in considering them henceforth as independent scientific societies ”

“ Again, though the mass often appears upon the whole to have been of chemical origin, yet at the same time it is, partially, of a structure to the eye decidedly mechanical; and in some instances the character is so extremely equivocal as to leave the judgment in a very difficult state of suspense. ”

“ The College, having the privilege of making by-laws, by degrees introduced distinctions among its members; admitting some applicants as fellows, and eligible to the offices—admitting others under the name of licentiates, with powers of practising medicine equally extensive as those of the fellows; but ineligible to college offices, as not being considered fellows. ”

“ At present a much wider view is taken of that question; and in order to afford some data on which an opinion may be founded as to the expediency and requisite extent of Medical Reform, the following facts are mentioned as partially explanatory of the actual state of the profession.
It appears that there are no less than nineteen sources of examination for licenses or degrees in medicine; of which as many as seventeen are in constant operation: viz.—
It is a fact, at first hardly credible, that scarcely one of these institutions can afford legal protection to its members ”

“ The predominating colour of these crystalline rocks is a brownish green.
The two highest of these hills, called Carnllidy and Penberry, are situated to the north of St. David's: they rise less abruptly from the plain than the similar hills of the neighbourhood; and are in a manner connected with each other, and with a third summit not far distant from the last mentioned, by a slightly elevated ridge which passes in a south-westerly direction from one hill to the other ”

“ It is important to observe, that during the period between lord Mansfield's and lord Kenyon's decisions, the positive number of the licentiates had been much increased; and the proportional number much more increased; and among them were many individuals distinguished, not only by their eminence in medicine and its allied sciences, but also in classical and general literature (as indeed lord Mansfield had acknowledged to be the case in his own time) ”