This article examines the process of establishing medical authority in 19th-century Britain. During this period, medical professionals attempted to standardise qualifications required to practice medicine. The unification of medical qualifications, a typical example of professionalisation, contributed towards establishing medical authority. However, medical authority depended on professionalisation as well as patronage from the government and local elites. In particular, medical professionals managing the self-governed system for medical qualification were apprehensive that they had a more tenuous relationship with the state than did other professions, especially lawyers and priests. They therefore hoped to develop a closer relationship with the state through the foundation of a medical council under the supervision of the government to examine medical qualifications. Medical professionals, however, conflicted over the appointment of members of the medical council. Some public-health reformers, who sought reorganisation of the central health administration, proposed that all members of the medical council be appointed by the government. Others regarded self-government as an essential element of medical authority and insisted that some council members be elected by the medical professionals themselves. Medical authority was thus established by seeking a balance between self-government and state intervention and was influenced by social situations, including public-health reform.
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