Medical patents : a letter on the patenting of inventions in connexion with medicine / by John Chapman.

  • Chapman, John, 1821-1894.
Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical patents : a letter on the patenting of inventions in connexion with medicine / by John Chapman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    bosoms of the presiding genii of the metropolitan branch of that Association there burns an intense flame of “ strong feeling” against me, that in presence of it the editor of the British Medical Journal, after asking me to allow him to propose me as a member of the Association, was obliged to abandon his friendly purpose, and that for my sin of having patented the spine bags which I devised there is no expiation. But surely, sir, my fate is a hard one: I am precluded from communi- cating with a large body of my professional brethren; I have been con- demned in their presence without a hearing; and when I claim the privilege of appealing against this ex parte judgment I am answered:— “We are unwilling to open the subject; many important members of the Association would strongly disapprove of its discussion ; and were it discussed in the organ of the Association they would be greatly offended.” Why this shrinking from discussion ? After the utmost effort to find out “ why” my doubts have vanished< and I have become convinced that the said “ Directory” is conscious that the position it has assumed in respect to the subject in question would prove untenable were a battery of logical arguments turned upon it. In the belief that I shall be able to demonstrate the truth of this conviction to the satisfaction of your readers, I ask you to publish the following letter—rejected by the British Medical Journal. Yours truly, John Chapman.