An exposition of the case of the assistant-surgeons of the Royal Navy / By a naval medical officer [i.e. J.O. McWilliam].

  • McWilliam, J. O. (James Ormiston), 1807-1861 or 1862.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An exposition of the case of the assistant-surgeons of the Royal Navy / By a naval medical officer [i.e. J.O. McWilliam]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    takes his place among the officers at the ward¬ room table, while his Naval brother, who is mocked with the same rank, is to be found in the gun-room or cockpit with the Midshipmen.* The position of the Naval Assistant-Surgeon will seem still more anomalous, and more bitterly absurd, when it is stated, that in the event of his being ordered to do duty with the marines, and with them embark in a man-of-war, he then becomes entitled to the ward¬ room, if only of one day’s standing in the service, while his brother officer employed in the medical duties of the ship can hope for nothing more than the cockpit, although he may have been twenty years in the service.f It would almost appear that the humiliation of the Naval Assistant-Surgeon was too great to be endured by any class of Medical Officers removed in any degree, however slight, from the naval service. The admission of the Naval Assistant-Surgeon to the ward-room has been hitherto mainly urged in consideration of the military rank granted him, of his years, his profession, and the status in civil society which the latter confers. But his claims are to be maintained on the still higher and more important ground of humanity, when he asks to be placed in a position that will enable him to do his best for the * “ In the man-of-war which carried out the troops to Canada last year, where did the Assistant-Surgeon of the Regiment mess?—I sup¬ pose in the ward-room.” [This was the case.] “But the Assistant-Surgeon of the Navy, who is declared by that order in Council to have the same rank with the Assistant-Surgeon of the Army, messed with the Midshipmen ?—Yes, in the cockpit.”—Evi¬ dence of Sir Wm. Burnett before Commission, 1838-9. Q. 2574-2575. t This actually took place in the experimental squadron during the year 1832, when the late Mr. Sirnmie, Assistant-Surgeon in the Royal Navy, appointed to do duty with the Marine Artillery, was, on being embarked with that body, a ward-room officer onboard H.M.S. Britannia.