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ROYAL INFIRMARY FOR CHILDREN.
525
the Royal Infirmary for Children, has contend with almost overwhelming difficulties, which I should not be justified ROYAL INFIRMARY FOR CHILDREN. in relating. By the labours of philanthropy, and mainly, 1 would add, by the exertions To the Editor of THE LANCET. of its excellent treasurer, a heavy building debt has been most materially reduced, and I to as am the prolong SIR,—Unwilling discussion of a subject, which has already a plan for its ultimate liquidation matured. is now shaking off the trammels which occupied so much space in the pages of your It have to it I consider cramped its energies ; it will prove my duty attempt journal, yet the removal of every erroneous impression that the bruised reed will not be broken. which might be detrimental to the interests As the intimate colleague of the lamented founder of that Institution, which I have of a public charity. In alluding to the letter of " One of the made for more than eight years my most Monthly Committee," of the Royal Infir- interesting field of comparative study, I mary, I wish not to withhold my entire belief confess I cannot look with indifference on in his anxiety for its prosperity, however I any statement calculated to injure its intermay regret that the mode he has adopted is ests, or to cast the slightest stigma on thoset so subversive of the desired end. It is a who deserve it not. The letter states that manifest injustice to come forward before since Dr. Davis’s death, " the attendance of " the public with one sweeping charge of neglect the medical officers has been less constant." against a whole medical establishment. If Sir, I challenge the proof of this assertion-such be allowed, it must lay an icy finger on I fearlessly challenge the proof of any derethat professional enthusiasm and labour, liction of my duty, during the years of my which, for their reward, look equally towards professional attachment to the Royal Infira consciousness of the performance of a marv. philanthropic duty, and the guerdon of a On these feelings, Sir, I ground my merited praise. But when such charge is apology for thus troubling you, and I must grounded on circumstances erroneously re- yet beg to rectify a slight error in our letter ported, on a case from which false inferences of the 29th ultimo. In the resolution of may be drawn prejudicial to the professional the Committee regarding the signature of reputation of the Infirmary, he is a tacit the names of the medical officers, an insertion enemy to charity who shrinks from a reply. of the time of arriving at, and of departing It happens, Sir, that on the Friday, when from, the Infirmary, is not required. I am; Sir, the author of the letter writes, " No phyYour most obedient Servant, sician, no surgeon," my own notes, and the WALTER C. WAI-TER C. DENDY. evidence of our House Surgeon testify my Dec. Stamford-st. 1829. been at the child not but 5, Upper having my post ; being a patient of my own, was not brought P. S.-The insertion of a second letter to me, in submission to that soi t of professional etiquette, which custom has so from Mr. Wood in THE LANCET of the 17th strangely established; but which, in a prac- inst., renders it essential that I should add tical sense was, I am convinced, productive a very brief postscript to my letter, the omission of which you acknowledged in the of no evil in this case. It was unfortunate that an unforeseen above Number. hemorrhagic tendency should have inter- In the letter of the medical officers. the vened after the incision of the gums ; but defence against a charge of neglect on their we have many instances (when such a state parts, referred to their practical, and not to of the vascular system exists,) of a fatal their political duties. result from the extraction of a tooth, or even My first letter will rectify the error which from a much slighter lesion. That the im- Mr. Wood has repeated in his second allusion putation of mala praxis should attach by to the case of Eliza Cole. It will also evince inference to the treatment of the gum, is my desire to have acknowledged a slight most unwarrantable. We are told a ligatltre mis-statement of the Committee’s resoluwas applied to the gum for the suppression tion, contained in the former explanatory of hæmorrhage ; the excessive irritation pro- letter. Regarding this resolution, I may duced by such a mode, may be at least as probably still labour under some imputation fairly adduced as the cause of death, as the of inconsistency. I did not wish to oppose the resolution in slight oosing from the incised gum. I impeach not the practice of the surgeon, the Committee, and even expressed myself whose name does not appear, nor is ithere not unwilling to accede to its mandates : I would discuss its propriety ; but it is, at at the same time candidly stating, that (with the siucerest respect for its members, among least, an illustration of the line" Incidit in Scyllam qui vult vitare Cha- whom 1 was proud to rank so many personal friends), a professional delicacy towards my rybdim."
Sir,
had
.
!,
to
526 me to obtain their and furnished with medicines by the house sentiments, and indeed, their acquiescence surgeon, without :delay.
colleagues would prompt
in the measure, without which an individual signature would be invidious, and not tend to any practical advantage to the lnstitution. In justification of this feeling’, I hesitate not to add, that were the interests of the Institution, to which I am so much attached, endangered, I would never allow profes-
sional, or even private friendship, from the conscientious
duty.
draw me of public
to
discharge
H. C. DENDY.
Jan. 20.
ROYAL INFIRMARY
FOR CHILDREN.
To the Editor of THE LANCET.
SIR,—In my answer in your 276th number, to a correspondent in your 27.5th, who signed himself "One of the Committee," I concluded with hoping that to "the next communication he favoured you with, he would have the courage to affix his name, This hope he has fulfilled, for in No. &c." 281, is a letter from him subscribed Charles
When I ofered myself to the notice of the Governors of this Infirmary, it was in consequence of an advertisement headed thus: "ToSuRGEONS, APOTHECARIES, and I-LALF-PAYMEDICA L OFFICERS;"my " own proper office," therefore, is not only to furnish the patients with medicines, but to prescribe for them in the absence of the physician or surgeon, and in the discharge of that duty, my valued friends the physicians and my no less valued friend the senior surgeon, as well as the relatives of the pa. tients, will, 1 am sure, most readily and willingly acknowledge, that I have given them full and entire satisfaction.
I remain, Sir, Your obedient Servant, JAMES WOODHAM, House Surgeon, Surgeon. Royal Infirmary, Jan. 20, 1328.
CHARITY RODERICK.
To
the Editor of THE
LANCET.
Wood, Poppin’s Court, Fleet Street. This, Well, an the fire of grace be not quite out of tlme, tlow shalt thou be moved.—1st Part HENRY IV. Sir, is as it should be ; it is open and manly, and like a true Englishman. But to the SIR,—On perusing an article last week, in question :—speaking of a resolution passed the Excrescence, on your late trial at the by the Committee, ou the 31st of March, Court of King’s Bench, I found myself in 1828, relative to the physicians and surgeons such a quagmire of bad grammar, ignormce, their in a names, &c,, book, lilr. and signing absurdity, that I really cannot resist the Wood observes, " they have told you, Sir, inclination I feel to solicit the attention of in their letter, that the motion was treated the worthy Editor of that concern to a few by them with the respect it deserved," viz., points, which would never be
certainly line has ever been written in the book by allowed to pass current in a schoolboy’s either of the gentlemen. In answer to which exercise. I beg leave to say, that they have not done We are, with gravity, informed, near so because they considered it, (at least the the begiuning of this ever-to-be-admired majority did) as derogatory for gentlemen, (for there are nG less than from 14 to and members of a learned profession, to be article, 16 notes of admiration in it,) that " they in on level minor clerks a with offices, have heard it said, and they believe it to be placed or porters in a warehouse, and this feeling the general feeling, that the amount of dawas openly and manfully expressed by the mages ought to have been ; but that junior physician, and I believe by the senior this would depend entirelylarger on the light in surgeon also, at the general meeting, in which the is viewed." Now, this May 1828. The register-book of the house is really important information ;informasurgeon is a" proper book," though Edward tion which should be communicated forth. was written, in a hurry, for Eliza, and though with to every juryman in the country. Note the physician and surgeon under whose also this, ye editors of journals, and marvel names patients are entered, may, on those at the modesty of the Excrescence there days, happen to be absent. Mr. Wood asks actually is not s note of admiration after this Do the medical officers state that the rectified spirit of a sentence. mother (of Eliza Cole) did not attend from " By every impartial man, acquainted four ?" One meeleven o’clock till not one
’
subject
nearly
and he presumes to consider That the amount of damages should dehimself such, will state that Mo mothe/’ ever remained at the Infirmary from eleven till pend on the light in which that subject is four. New patients who come before a viewed for which damages are sought, is, inquarter to twelve are always prescribed for deed, a very important piece of information.
dicalofficer,
the Royal Infirmary for Children, has contend with almost overwhelming difficulties, which I should not be justified ROYAL INFIRMARY FOR CHILDREN. in relating. By the labours of philanthropy, and mainly, 1 would add, by the exertions To the Editor of THE LANCET. of its excellent treasurer, a heavy building debt has been most materially reduced, and I to as am the prolong SIR,—Unwilling discussion of a subject, which has already a plan for its ultimate liquidation matured. is now shaking off the trammels which occupied so much space in the pages of your It have to it I consider cramped its energies ; it will prove my duty attempt journal, yet the removal of every erroneous impression that the bruised reed will not be broken. which might be detrimental to the interests As the intimate colleague of the lamented founder of that Institution, which I have of a public charity. In alluding to the letter of " One of the made for more than eight years my most Monthly Committee," of the Royal Infir- interesting field of comparative study, I mary, I wish not to withhold my entire belief confess I cannot look with indifference on in his anxiety for its prosperity, however I any statement calculated to injure its intermay regret that the mode he has adopted is ests, or to cast the slightest stigma on thoset so subversive of the desired end. It is a who deserve it not. The letter states that manifest injustice to come forward before since Dr. Davis’s death, " the attendance of " the public with one sweeping charge of neglect the medical officers has been less constant." against a whole medical establishment. If Sir, I challenge the proof of this assertion-such be allowed, it must lay an icy finger on I fearlessly challenge the proof of any derethat professional enthusiasm and labour, liction of my duty, during the years of my which, for their reward, look equally towards professional attachment to the Royal Infira consciousness of the performance of a marv. philanthropic duty, and the guerdon of a On these feelings, Sir, I ground my merited praise. But when such charge is apology for thus troubling you, and I must grounded on circumstances erroneously re- yet beg to rectify a slight error in our letter ported, on a case from which false inferences of the 29th ultimo. In the resolution of may be drawn prejudicial to the professional the Committee regarding the signature of reputation of the Infirmary, he is a tacit the names of the medical officers, an insertion enemy to charity who shrinks from a reply. of the time of arriving at, and of departing It happens, Sir, that on the Friday, when from, the Infirmary, is not required. I am; Sir, the author of the letter writes, " No phyYour most obedient Servant, sician, no surgeon," my own notes, and the WALTER C. WAI-TER C. DENDY. evidence of our House Surgeon testify my Dec. Stamford-st. 1829. been at the child not but 5, Upper having my post ; being a patient of my own, was not brought P. S.-The insertion of a second letter to me, in submission to that soi t of professional etiquette, which custom has so from Mr. Wood in THE LANCET of the 17th strangely established; but which, in a prac- inst., renders it essential that I should add tical sense was, I am convinced, productive a very brief postscript to my letter, the omission of which you acknowledged in the of no evil in this case. It was unfortunate that an unforeseen above Number. hemorrhagic tendency should have inter- In the letter of the medical officers. the vened after the incision of the gums ; but defence against a charge of neglect on their we have many instances (when such a state parts, referred to their practical, and not to of the vascular system exists,) of a fatal their political duties. result from the extraction of a tooth, or even My first letter will rectify the error which from a much slighter lesion. That the im- Mr. Wood has repeated in his second allusion putation of mala praxis should attach by to the case of Eliza Cole. It will also evince inference to the treatment of the gum, is my desire to have acknowledged a slight most unwarrantable. We are told a ligatltre mis-statement of the Committee’s resoluwas applied to the gum for the suppression tion, contained in the former explanatory of hæmorrhage ; the excessive irritation pro- letter. Regarding this resolution, I may duced by such a mode, may be at least as probably still labour under some imputation fairly adduced as the cause of death, as the of inconsistency. I did not wish to oppose the resolution in slight oosing from the incised gum. I impeach not the practice of the surgeon, the Committee, and even expressed myself whose name does not appear, nor is ithere not unwilling to accede to its mandates : I would discuss its propriety ; but it is, at at the same time candidly stating, that (with the siucerest respect for its members, among least, an illustration of the line" Incidit in Scyllam qui vult vitare Cha- whom 1 was proud to rank so many personal friends), a professional delicacy towards my rybdim."
Sir,
had
.
!,
to
526 me to obtain their and furnished with medicines by the house sentiments, and indeed, their acquiescence surgeon, without :delay.
colleagues would prompt
in the measure, without which an individual signature would be invidious, and not tend to any practical advantage to the lnstitution. In justification of this feeling’, I hesitate not to add, that were the interests of the Institution, to which I am so much attached, endangered, I would never allow profes-
sional, or even private friendship, from the conscientious
duty.
draw me of public
to
discharge
H. C. DENDY.
Jan. 20.
ROYAL INFIRMARY
FOR CHILDREN.
To the Editor of THE LANCET.
SIR,—In my answer in your 276th number, to a correspondent in your 27.5th, who signed himself "One of the Committee," I concluded with hoping that to "the next communication he favoured you with, he would have the courage to affix his name, This hope he has fulfilled, for in No. &c." 281, is a letter from him subscribed Charles
When I ofered myself to the notice of the Governors of this Infirmary, it was in consequence of an advertisement headed thus: "ToSuRGEONS, APOTHECARIES, and I-LALF-PAYMEDICA L OFFICERS;"my " own proper office," therefore, is not only to furnish the patients with medicines, but to prescribe for them in the absence of the physician or surgeon, and in the discharge of that duty, my valued friends the physicians and my no less valued friend the senior surgeon, as well as the relatives of the pa. tients, will, 1 am sure, most readily and willingly acknowledge, that I have given them full and entire satisfaction.
I remain, Sir, Your obedient Servant, JAMES WOODHAM, House Surgeon, Surgeon. Royal Infirmary, Jan. 20, 1328.
CHARITY RODERICK.
To
the Editor of THE
LANCET.
Wood, Poppin’s Court, Fleet Street. This, Well, an the fire of grace be not quite out of tlme, tlow shalt thou be moved.—1st Part HENRY IV. Sir, is as it should be ; it is open and manly, and like a true Englishman. But to the SIR,—On perusing an article last week, in question :—speaking of a resolution passed the Excrescence, on your late trial at the by the Committee, ou the 31st of March, Court of King’s Bench, I found myself in 1828, relative to the physicians and surgeons such a quagmire of bad grammar, ignormce, their in a names, &c,, book, lilr. and signing absurdity, that I really cannot resist the Wood observes, " they have told you, Sir, inclination I feel to solicit the attention of in their letter, that the motion was treated the worthy Editor of that concern to a few by them with the respect it deserved," viz., points, which would never be
certainly line has ever been written in the book by allowed to pass current in a schoolboy’s either of the gentlemen. In answer to which exercise. I beg leave to say, that they have not done We are, with gravity, informed, near so because they considered it, (at least the the begiuning of this ever-to-be-admired majority did) as derogatory for gentlemen, (for there are nG less than from 14 to and members of a learned profession, to be article, 16 notes of admiration in it,) that " they in on level minor clerks a with offices, have heard it said, and they believe it to be placed or porters in a warehouse, and this feeling the general feeling, that the amount of dawas openly and manfully expressed by the mages ought to have been ; but that junior physician, and I believe by the senior this would depend entirelylarger on the light in surgeon also, at the general meeting, in which the is viewed." Now, this May 1828. The register-book of the house is really important information ;informasurgeon is a" proper book," though Edward tion which should be communicated forth. was written, in a hurry, for Eliza, and though with to every juryman in the country. Note the physician and surgeon under whose also this, ye editors of journals, and marvel names patients are entered, may, on those at the modesty of the Excrescence there days, happen to be absent. Mr. Wood asks actually is not s note of admiration after this Do the medical officers state that the rectified spirit of a sentence. mother (of Eliza Cole) did not attend from " By every impartial man, acquainted four ?" One meeleven o’clock till not one
’
subject
nearly
and he presumes to consider That the amount of damages should dehimself such, will state that Mo mothe/’ ever remained at the Infirmary from eleven till pend on the light in which that subject is four. New patients who come before a viewed for which damages are sought, is, inquarter to twelve are always prescribed for deed, a very important piece of information.
dicalofficer,