Answer for the junior members of the Royal College of Surgeons, of Edinburgh, to the Memorial of Dr James Gregory / [John Bell].

  • Gregory James, 1753-1821.
Date:
1800
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Answer for the junior members of the Royal College of Surgeons, of Edinburgh, to the Memorial of Dr James Gregory / [John Bell]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    I . : / [ 20 ] et It is incumbent on me therefore to fhew, that, as Mana- gers of the Hofpital, we are guardians of the health and lives of the Tick poor admitted into it; and that, in this view, we have the ftrongefl interefl and moft cogent reafons for wifhing to enforce our legal chartered right ; and for demanding, that a tranfathon inconfiffent with that right, and cruelly bad for the fick poor, fhall be annulled” “ This I take to be the equity of the cafe.” “ Thegoodnef or badnefs therefore which I am to confider, are only different degrees of goodnef ; but the difference may be very great; and that is bad which is lefs good than what we know may be obtained, either in point of medi- cines, or of medical and chirurgical attendants. “ If, in one night, all the furgeons of Edinburgh were re- moved to a better world ! where it is to be hoped they will all arrive in due time ! &c.” The fpecific qualities of the author’s language can nevei* be fufficiently admired, nor fully tailed, but in large dofes— ufque ad naufeam. His variety, not only of language, but of matter, is infinite ; “ for his mind poffeffes unlimited powers of inglutition, and his ideas adhere to each other with fuch tenacity, that whenever his memory is flimulated by any powerful interrogatory, it not only difcharges a full anfwer to the individual queflion, but likewife a prodigious flood of collateral knowledge, derived from fuch copious and re- peated infufions, as no common fkull would be capable of containing.” The author is full of profound fciences, and his language naturally tafles of his learning. It mull be as difficult to amalgamate the language of various, and perhaps difcordant fciences, as the tongues of different nations j the