MEDICAL POLITICS: BEING THE ESSAY TO WHICH WAS AWARDED THE FIRST CARMICHAEL PRIZE, OF £200, BY THE Council of the Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland, 1873. BY ISAAC ASHE, M.D., M.CH., TRIN. COLL. DUB.; FORMERLY EXAMINER IN ARTS, R.C.S.I.; FELL. METEOR. SOC. LOND.; PHYSICIAN SUPERINTENDENT, LondondeRRY DISTRICT HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE. 'Excelsior DUBLIN: FANNIN & CO., 41, GRAFTON-STREET EDINBURGH: MACLACHLAN & STEWART. PREFACE. THERE does not seem to be any sound a priori reason why the Profession of Medicine should be held in less honour, or occupy a lower place in public esteem, than the sister Professions of the Church or the Bar, the Army or the Navy. The application of the skill of the physician or surgeon is more immediate, personal, and direct than that of an individual in any of the other professions we have named; and yet these are the essentials of highly valued service. A criminal's life may indeed be saved at the bar of justice by forensic skill, but we doubt if the legal profession would regard this as their highest claim to public recognition or appreciation. Medical skill confers the benefit of direct saving of life on the highest and noblest, not merely on the criminal. It is therefore obvious that the source from which arises the higher honour awarded by the State to the other professions is, a conception of the value of their aggregate service, not to an individual, but to the State as an aggregate conception; for that it is State honour which raises the rank of a profession is evident from the comparatively humble position occupied by |