The Report on the medical charities in pursuance of the powers conferred by the _46th and 47th sections_ of the Poor Relief Act, was presented to government shortly after the date of the last annual Report,[107] together with the evidence which had then been taken, and including “the heads of a proposed bill for the better regulation and support of the medical charities of Ireland.” The remainder of the evidence was presented on the conclusion of the inquiry, and the whole was in due course laid before parliament. I was then the commissioner acting in Ireland, and being highly impressed with the importance of the numerous medical institutions, and with the necessity for their better support and regulation, I had bestowed much time and labour on the subject, and had earnestly endeavoured to devise the means of placing these valuable charities in a more secure condition with regard to their finances, and at the same time to improve the position of the medical practitioners by whose exertions they were in very many cases chiefly supported. All my efforts were directed to these ends, and to increasing the efficiency of the charities for the objects for which they were instituted. I was aware that there were difficulties to be overcome, arising from interested motives professional jealousies and misapprehensions; but there was no concealment, the course adopted was open, no pains were spared, able assistance had been obtained, and I was hopeful of success. The Report, with the heads of the proposed bill, was sent to every medical institution throughout Ireland, and had also been otherwise extensively circulated, without calling forth any expression of dissent, either from the medical profession or other parties; and with the sanction of government a bill was prepared in exact conformity with the headings set forth in the Report, and was about being introduced into parliament, when so violent an opposition was suddenly manifested by a great majority of the medical profession, that government deemed it inexpedient to proceed with the bill. The measure for “the better regulation and support of the medical charities in Ireland” was therefore suspended, but it was not abandoned; and the author had a few years afterwards the satisfaction of seeing a measure substantially the same as he had recommended, and founded on the inquiry which he had instituted, generally acquiesced in and become the law.[108] ----- [107] Ante, p. 268. [108] The 14th and 15th Vict. cap. 68. See post, p. 382. ----- [Sidenote: Vaccination.]