The paper analyses the circumstances which resulted in the formulation of a
disciplinary code by the Society of Accountants in Edinburgh (SAE) during the 1880s.
The episode is related through historical biographies of two villainous
practitioners: Henry Callender and Donald Smith Peddie. The absence of codified
regulations pertaining to professional conduct in the early constitution of the SAE
is explored in the context of prevailing vocational ideologies and the role of
admission stipulations as sociocultural filtering devices. It is revealed that
organisational responses to cases of criminal misconduct were positively correlated
with the degree of "offence visibility" and the resultant level of adverse
publicity. The protective and status-preserving motives for the framing of
disciplinary rules by professional associations are also highlighted. The study
emphasises the potential impact of the disreputable practitioner on the construction
and destruction of the institutions of professionalism.
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