PDF (Whole thesis) - UTas ePrints - University of Tasmania

32
\'IOuld be deemed "legally qualified" after proving to the satisfaction of
the President or any one member of the Court of Examiners that he \vas a
Doctor of Medicine of some University or a Physician Surgeon or Apothecary
licensed or admitted as such by some College of Physicians or Surgeons or
by the Society of Apothecaries of London or Dublin .
Secondly, a person would be deemed "l . egally qualified" after
obtaining Letters Testimonial to practise following a successful examination
held before at least three members of the Court of Examiners . The power
of the Court of Examiners was to cease after 1840, except in the case of
candidates conforming to the- course of education .
This act was amended on October 5, 1840, when it was decreed that
Letters Testimonial would be granted after an exam before three members ,
and that the sale of dugs was to be licensed. A further Act of
August 31, 1842, consolidated the previous acts . By this important act
the position of doctors in the colony was established for some years to
come; the Lieutenant-Governor was empowered to appoint a Court of Medical
Examiners ; it defined who were legally qualified practitioners and set the
penalty for those practising without the correct qualifi cat ions . It set
out a cours e of education necessary to obtain Letters Testimonial with
certain regulations pertaining to the pupi ls . The Court was empowered to
settle the scale of fees and to make rules governing its own proceedings
and decisions , any act of three or more members to be deemed the act of
the whole Court . The act gave control of the sale of drugs and estab lished
the rights of appeal . l 9
A question of minor importance perhaps to some of the more
successful private practitioners , but of some consequence to those doctors
employed in the Government Medical Department , was the decision made at
this time by the Governor in respect of free medicine . For some time past
there had been considerable difference of opinion amongst persons employed
in the Colonial Service and those in the Convict Department as to who were
eligib le for free medical attention and free medicines . On May 1, 1838,
Arthur appealed to Franklin to set up a Board to decide this touchy question .
The Board, composed of Arthur himself, G.T.W. Boyes Auditor of Accounts,
Acts of the Legislative Council, Vol . 2, 1837-43, p. 1313.
W.E.L.H. Crowther , 11A Background to Medical
Practice and the Training of Surgical
Apprentices and Pupils in Van Diemen ' s
Land'', The Australian and New Zealand
Journal of Surgery, Vol . XXI , 1951-2, p. 195 .