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THE RETIREMENT OF MR. COOPER FROM UNIVERSITY COLLEGE.
484 the eloquence, zeal, and ability of a Liston have been poured out upon you in vain." Bankrupt indeed must that medical school be which cannot educate one surgeon in twenty years. But, Sir, neither you, nor any one else, saving the heads of this College, dare propagate so foul a calumny. The teaching of Liston has not been in vain. Surgeons many and distinguished have been educated there, and are now affording to the world the benefit and advantages derived from Liston’s operative skill and sound surgery. I recal this to mind in order to warn the College against rehearsing the blundering injustice and gross jobbery which they committed in appointing Liston’s successor, and which Mr. Cooper so fearlessly and honestly protested against. Let them beware, and. in time, lest a similar error committed in filling the vacant chair of surgery be fatal to the interests and prosperity of that school, of which the genius of Liston and the eloquence and accomplishments of Mr. Cooper have been the main support.-I am, Sir, faithfully yours, DETUR DIGNIORI. April, 1848. THE RETIREMENT OF MR. COOPER FROM UNIVERSITY COLLEGE. To tfte Editor of THE LANCET. SIR,—The exact circumstances which gave rise to Mr. Cooper’s resignation require to be more clearly stated than they were in last week’s LANCET. Allow me to do this very briefly, and without comment. Mr. Cooper has been liable to attacks of rheumatic gout for the last three or four years. During Mr. Liston’s lifetime he was able to avail himself of this distinguished surgeon’s aid to prevent the occasional interruptions of his lectures which would otherwise have occurred. At the beginning of the present winter session, Mr. Cooper and Mr. Liston being both ill, Mr. Morton was appointed to continue the lectures-he did so with remarkable success. Mr. Cooper has now been informed that he will not be permitted in future sessions to receive this assistance, and he is consequently forced to resign. It is not difficult to trace the steps of the operation. The intrigue now in progress is a repetition of one practised some ten or twelve years ago, in the case of the late professor of anatomy, than whom no man ever left the College more
regretted. It is time, therefore, that such iniquitous proceedings should be put an end to. If THE LANCET takes up the matter, there can
be
April,
no
1848.
doubt of the result. I am,
Sir, your obedient servant, VERITAS.
MEDICAL OFFICERS OF UNIONS, AND NAVAL ASSISTANT-SURGEONS. To the Editor of THE LANCET. SIR,—Under the head of " Medical News" in THE LANCET of March Ilth, 1848, my attention has been directed to the spirited and able manner in which Dr. Addison, physician to Guy’s Hospital, described "the desire existing amongst all classes of the community, from the highest to the lowest, to detract from the merits and labours of medical men;" and the existing " contemptible and disgusting conduct of the very lowest assemblies in the kingdom-the grasping, grinding, socalled guardians’ towards medical officers of unions." Those medical gentlemen who have been tyrannically treated must feel themselves greatly indebted to Dr. Addison for his manly and noble course. At the board of Admiralty, the most disgraceful and
despicable treatment is pursued towards the junior medical officers of the navy. Executive ignorance, cunning, and prejudice, may conspire to check our increase of comfortable privilege, but shall we hope in vain! Here is one amongst the highest boards, invested with an extensive power, and pertinaciously thinking fit to adopt and carry out regulations, insulting, ruinous, and derogatory to an educated body of gentlemen, as we are. If the naval authorities can obstinately attempt to defend our present treatment as just, consistent, and expedient, what can be expected from unlettered agriculturists, (towards medical officers of unions,) who look to those in higher stations of life for an example? Are those gentlemen in civil practice mute to our remonstrances ? Can they consider our situation other than with feelings of strong resentment ? Should not general practitioners lend their aid in assisting us ? Should they not endeavour to establish a claim on government patronage for the sons of those medical gentlemen who have fallen in the discharge of a professional and humane duty! Should it not behove them to petition the
to inquire into the grievances of army and naval medical men? Is not the naval assistant-surgeon’s position, to use the words of an editorial article of THE LANCET, "the most salient grievance of all" ? It is quite impossible that this state of things can last. Some months since, Mr. Potter, assistant-surgeon of University College, was swept off in the prime of life. He was an ornament to the institution to which he belonged, a credit to himself and family. What would have become of this gentleman and all his rivals in scholastic distinctions, had they entered the naval medical service ? To superior acquirements no deference whatever would have been shown. They would have been domesticated with youngsters, and subject to daily boyish insult. They would not have been deemed fit companions for the minister of religion, the naval lieutenants, and the surgeon! They must have slept in hammocks, maintained library, toilet, wardrobe, and surgical instruments in a chest. They must literally have wasted their time on their legs,—not have one solitary accommodation for study and retirement. There are two learned professions on shipboard, religion and physic, yet why is the latter so basely, wantonly, and cruelly treated ? At the root of this is envy and consummate prejudice. For the last quarter of a century have we been frequently communicating our grievances to the press-in the last year we have seen men sprung from the artisan class, engineers of steam vessels, constituted ward-room officers. Some few years prior to this, naval instructors, teachers of writing, arithmetic, and navigation, were admitted to mess with surgeons and lieutenants; but those gentlemen who are fully qualified medical officers, are, on entering the naval medical service, thrust among mere learners, and there kept in menial subjection till they are between thirty and forty years of age! Perhaps these few remarks may attract the serious attention of our professional brethren on shore, through the medium of your widely-distributed journal; and with that object I humbly request the insertion of this correspondence. I am. Sir, your obedient servant, AN ASSISTANT-SURGEON R.N.
legislature
A LETTER BY A CLERGYMAN ON THE POSITION OF MEDICAL OFFICERS OF UNIONS. THE following letter, by a clergyman, deserves an attentive perusal, as setting forth, in true colours, the position of medical officers of unions. It was addressedTo tlie Editor of The Times. SIR,—However shocking the late Croydon case may appear, I, for one, am not in the least surprised at it. I know from long observation that the working of the medical part of the new poor-law is so utterly defective, that I am only surprised so few cases of disgusting cruelty come to light; that thousands of cases yearly occur equally bad, I have no doubt. I have never yet heard it disputed that the pay of the union surgeon bears no proportion to the services required of him; in fact, he can hardly be said to be paid at all, for I am satisfied that in the majority of cases his salary does not cover half his expenses; he, therefore, not only is actually a loser in a pecuniary point of view, but, as time to a professional man is a thing of positive money value, he is also a large loser in the matter of time devoted, without any return to the duties of his office. Look for one moment at the position of a union doctor. He has always a long permanent list of paupers-i. e., a list of those who have tickets empowering them to have his assistance whenever they need it, without any fresh order from the relieving officer. These are mostly very old people, or those who labour under some permanent disability, troublesome in the matter of ointments for old ulcers, liniments for rheumatic limbs, and pills for chronic coughs; occasionally requiring constant-almost daily—attendance for complaints requiring daily mechanical surgical aid. Divide the union medical doctor’s salary by the number in this class of patients alone, taking their requirements, and their relative distances from the place in which he resides, and in very many cases a very small result will remain in the shape of profit. In other cases, he is supposed to have an order from the overseer, if it is a case of a sudden and urgent nature; from the relieving officer, if it is an ordinary case. Now, in some very large unions there are only two relieving officers ; they may or may not live near the doctor of their district; they certainly live some miles from many of the parishes under his and their care; the relieving officer is supposed to visit personally, once, at least, in each week, each of his parishes; a case of illness occurs in parish A, north, by four miles, of the relieving
regretted. It is time, therefore, that such iniquitous proceedings should be put an end to. If THE LANCET takes up the matter, there can
be
April,
no
1848.
doubt of the result. I am,
Sir, your obedient servant, VERITAS.
MEDICAL OFFICERS OF UNIONS, AND NAVAL ASSISTANT-SURGEONS. To the Editor of THE LANCET. SIR,—Under the head of " Medical News" in THE LANCET of March Ilth, 1848, my attention has been directed to the spirited and able manner in which Dr. Addison, physician to Guy’s Hospital, described "the desire existing amongst all classes of the community, from the highest to the lowest, to detract from the merits and labours of medical men;" and the existing " contemptible and disgusting conduct of the very lowest assemblies in the kingdom-the grasping, grinding, socalled guardians’ towards medical officers of unions." Those medical gentlemen who have been tyrannically treated must feel themselves greatly indebted to Dr. Addison for his manly and noble course. At the board of Admiralty, the most disgraceful and
despicable treatment is pursued towards the junior medical officers of the navy. Executive ignorance, cunning, and prejudice, may conspire to check our increase of comfortable privilege, but shall we hope in vain! Here is one amongst the highest boards, invested with an extensive power, and pertinaciously thinking fit to adopt and carry out regulations, insulting, ruinous, and derogatory to an educated body of gentlemen, as we are. If the naval authorities can obstinately attempt to defend our present treatment as just, consistent, and expedient, what can be expected from unlettered agriculturists, (towards medical officers of unions,) who look to those in higher stations of life for an example? Are those gentlemen in civil practice mute to our remonstrances ? Can they consider our situation other than with feelings of strong resentment ? Should not general practitioners lend their aid in assisting us ? Should they not endeavour to establish a claim on government patronage for the sons of those medical gentlemen who have fallen in the discharge of a professional and humane duty! Should it not behove them to petition the
to inquire into the grievances of army and naval medical men? Is not the naval assistant-surgeon’s position, to use the words of an editorial article of THE LANCET, "the most salient grievance of all" ? It is quite impossible that this state of things can last. Some months since, Mr. Potter, assistant-surgeon of University College, was swept off in the prime of life. He was an ornament to the institution to which he belonged, a credit to himself and family. What would have become of this gentleman and all his rivals in scholastic distinctions, had they entered the naval medical service ? To superior acquirements no deference whatever would have been shown. They would have been domesticated with youngsters, and subject to daily boyish insult. They would not have been deemed fit companions for the minister of religion, the naval lieutenants, and the surgeon! They must have slept in hammocks, maintained library, toilet, wardrobe, and surgical instruments in a chest. They must literally have wasted their time on their legs,—not have one solitary accommodation for study and retirement. There are two learned professions on shipboard, religion and physic, yet why is the latter so basely, wantonly, and cruelly treated ? At the root of this is envy and consummate prejudice. For the last quarter of a century have we been frequently communicating our grievances to the press-in the last year we have seen men sprung from the artisan class, engineers of steam vessels, constituted ward-room officers. Some few years prior to this, naval instructors, teachers of writing, arithmetic, and navigation, were admitted to mess with surgeons and lieutenants; but those gentlemen who are fully qualified medical officers, are, on entering the naval medical service, thrust among mere learners, and there kept in menial subjection till they are between thirty and forty years of age! Perhaps these few remarks may attract the serious attention of our professional brethren on shore, through the medium of your widely-distributed journal; and with that object I humbly request the insertion of this correspondence. I am. Sir, your obedient servant, AN ASSISTANT-SURGEON R.N.
legislature
A LETTER BY A CLERGYMAN ON THE POSITION OF MEDICAL OFFICERS OF UNIONS. THE following letter, by a clergyman, deserves an attentive perusal, as setting forth, in true colours, the position of medical officers of unions. It was addressedTo tlie Editor of The Times. SIR,—However shocking the late Croydon case may appear, I, for one, am not in the least surprised at it. I know from long observation that the working of the medical part of the new poor-law is so utterly defective, that I am only surprised so few cases of disgusting cruelty come to light; that thousands of cases yearly occur equally bad, I have no doubt. I have never yet heard it disputed that the pay of the union surgeon bears no proportion to the services required of him; in fact, he can hardly be said to be paid at all, for I am satisfied that in the majority of cases his salary does not cover half his expenses; he, therefore, not only is actually a loser in a pecuniary point of view, but, as time to a professional man is a thing of positive money value, he is also a large loser in the matter of time devoted, without any return to the duties of his office. Look for one moment at the position of a union doctor. He has always a long permanent list of paupers-i. e., a list of those who have tickets empowering them to have his assistance whenever they need it, without any fresh order from the relieving officer. These are mostly very old people, or those who labour under some permanent disability, troublesome in the matter of ointments for old ulcers, liniments for rheumatic limbs, and pills for chronic coughs; occasionally requiring constant-almost daily—attendance for complaints requiring daily mechanical surgical aid. Divide the union medical doctor’s salary by the number in this class of patients alone, taking their requirements, and their relative distances from the place in which he resides, and in very many cases a very small result will remain in the shape of profit. In other cases, he is supposed to have an order from the overseer, if it is a case of a sudden and urgent nature; from the relieving officer, if it is an ordinary case. Now, in some very large unions there are only two relieving officers ; they may or may not live near the doctor of their district; they certainly live some miles from many of the parishes under his and their care; the relieving officer is supposed to visit personally, once, at least, in each week, each of his parishes; a case of illness occurs in parish A, north, by four miles, of the relieving