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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    ample measure of justice can be rendered them without prejudice to any one (for their elevation is nowhere sought at the expense of that of others); without even the slightest invasion of rule, prin¬ ciple, or dignity, on the part of the Admiralty ; and without any additional cost to the country. The admission of the Assistant-Surgeons to ward¬ room privileges will, with many other benefits, substitute content for discontent among those al¬ ready in the service. Candidates in abundance, and these too of the highest qualifications, will no longer be found wanting; and the Naval Medical Service, instead of being as it is at present the most unpopular, will become one of the most popular of public medical employments. We have thus briefly, and we trust temperately, endeavoured to draw attention to the case of the Naval Assistant-Surgeons, by presenting a plain statement of facts regarding their condition on ship-board, as being highly prejudicial to an im¬ portant interest of the public service. We have also humbly suggested the means by which the grievances complained of may be remedied, and these officers enabled to render their services most efficiently available to their country; for, to use the emphatic language of one of the venerable and eminent corporate bodies of the kingdom, it is ever to be borne in mind “that their capability, not merely in their present rank, but in the higher rank to which they aspire, will depend in a great degree on the devotion of a large portion of their time to purposes of self-improvement; and that they may at any moment be called upon to treat the most difficult cases, to combat the most formidable epi¬ demics, to dress the most serious wounds, and to
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