Legislative entrenchment and enforcement of medical and surgical practice in Malta, 1801-1901

Abstract

The late Maltese medical historian Dr Paul Cassar published his magnum opus on Malta’s Medical History first in 1964, and is now well over 50 years old but still very valid for elaborations and re-evaluations on the subject-matter. This article is meant to re-visit Dr Cassar’s research on medical and surgical practice in Malta (or the Maltese Islands, including Gozo) under the first century of British rule by way of an amplification of the relevant legal sources and literature, and by focusing on the role and function which legislation played as a means of entrenchment and enforcement of the system. It is intended to show that legislation as a social science is more than a document that enjoins principles and concepts, and has been an instrument of application and coercion in relation to vital human interest. This contribution will cover the first 100 years of British rule because in their course the foundations of the present-day medical and surgical system were prepared and laid.