The correspondence relating to the Lancet Sanitary Commission : (which appeared lately in The Times) / examined by James Caesar Durnford, John A. Power and Raymond S. Daniell ; with an appendix of documents.

  • Durnford, James Caesar.
Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The correspondence relating to the Lancet Sanitary Commission : (which appeared lately in The Times) / examined by James Caesar Durnford, John A. Power and Raymond S. Daniell ; with an appendix of documents. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    uncharitableness exist in his profession ; for our part, however, we have tdo much faith in the generosity and honour of the medical profession to apprehend that the forebodings of Dr. Letheby will be very generally realised. But, after all, this is not a question of testimonial or no testimonial (that has been already decided), though it may suit the purpose of opponents to represent it as such. Dr. Hassall did not require Dr. Letheby to admonish him on the inconveni- ences that might result from such demonstrations when in- judiciously made. He was fully convinced of the fact that such expressions of popular feeling are as often elicited with- out merit as withheld where deserved. But this never was, and is not now, the question that most concerns Dr. Hassall. Granting that he acted indiscreetly in informing his “friend” Dr. Letheby of the graceful act by which it was in con- templation to acknowledge his services, granting that he laid himself open to ungenerous insinuations, and to the “ strong censure” which Dr. Letheby alleges erroneously* he addressed to him on the subject, by his permitting, during his absence, a meeting of a few personal friends at his own house of an entirely preliminary character, and the invitations for which, including a letter to Dr. Letheby himself, were issued by Dr. Barnes, still the question remains whether or not Dr. Hassall has deserved well of the public for having been chiefly instrumental in exposing the nefarious artifices by which the health and comfort of every individual of every class in the community are sacrificed to the cupidity of dishonest tradesmen ? We affirm, without fear of confuta- tion, that he has — and we prove our assertion by the testi- mony of his detractors. Before entering, however, on this point, we would observe, that Dr. Hassall never appears, as Dr. Letheby insinuates, to have arrogated to himself the merit of having initiated the inquiry so successfully carried out by him under the Analytical Sanatory Commission. “ To Mr. Wakley,” says * We have now before us the letter referred to by Dr. Letheby, and it does not convey the slightest censure: on the contrary, it is written in a perfectly friendly spirit, and is simply a sort of dissertation on the subject of testimo- nials in general.