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The necessity of regulating the practice of physic.
It will be readily acknowledged by every one that allows himself to reflect upon it, that some regulation in regard to a Physicians attendance upon the sick is now become highly requisite. Formerly, when the city did not occupy much above half the extent, practice was much more manageable than it is at present. Living was then cheap. Within my own memory, every article of expence was less by almost one half. So that what suited the circumstances of the place and people then does not suit them now. Yet we may believe the knowledge of Physic has been cultivated all along with considerable application. A medical education is at least become much more expensive, and a man has little chance, if he keeps free from empiricism, to get a tolerable living by physic now, unless he has spent some years in an expensive education in Europe. Is it not then more equitable to be paid for attendance, than to live by advancing the price of medicines?
I am not urging these as arguments for a more expensive practice, but for an improvement of it, by separating physic from surgery and pharmacy, which
