We have only found one reported case of any consequence in which the College of Surgeons have been parties. In _Rex v. the Master and Wardens of the Company of Surgeons in London_, it was determined that a By-law requiring apprentices to have a competent knowledge of the Latin language, is good and reasonable; (_see_ 2 _Bur._ 892. _and Appendix_). Continual attempts have been made to decry the value of classical attainment in the medical professor; the legal authorities however agree that the Corporations have the right of prescribing a due course of education as a necessary preliminary to admission; and we sincerely hope that these learned bodies will never abandon this principle, that none shall be admitted to the higher honors of their profession, who are not possessed of the ordinary acquirements of gentlemen. In the year 1800 the Surgeons of London obtained a new Charter from his late Majesty, which after reciting the previous Charters and Acts of Parliament which we have noticed, proceeds thus: “And whereas we are informed that the said Corporation of Master Governors and Commonalty of the art and science of Surgeons of London, hath become and now is dissolved,” &c. therefore His Majesty was pleased to incorporate the members of the late Company, and all such persons who, since the dissolution thereof, have obtained Letters Testimonial, &c. and confirmed to such new Corporation all gifts, grants, liberties, privileges, and immunities, possessions real and personal, &c. granted or confirmed by any previous Charter or Act of Parliament. We confess ourselves at a loss to trace either the mode or date of the alleged dissolution; the Act of the 18th _Geo._ 2. is explicit as to the creation of a College of Surgeons, and we consequently find them recognised in the character of a Corporation in the cited case _Rex v. the Master and Wardens_ (_Appendix_ p. 153), which was tried in the 33d of _Geo._ 2.; but as the College have themselves admitted the fact, we must take it for granted that the recital is correct; how far the Charter of _Geo._ 3. unconfirmed by an Act of Parliament can revive their ancient rights may be a most material question; but as we are of opinion that the rights of this body should rather be increased than diminished we do not at present enter into it, in the hope that the defect, if it exist, will be shortly remedied by the Legislature.[119]. 3. OF THE SOCIETY OF APOTHECARIES.[120]