Report of the building committee, presented to His Grace The Duke of Marlborough, President, on the opening of the south-wing, November 21, 1863.
- Date:
- 1863
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Report of the building committee, presented to His Grace The Duke of Marlborough, President, on the opening of the south-wing, November 21, 1863. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.
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![patients; for if they set a low tone, that tone would be perpetuated and disseminated in every direction. Young men passing through the University would take their standard from what they saw done here, and would consider that if they went a little below what was fixed here, they would be doing enough in places of a less metropolitan character; and therefore whatever was faulty in their arrangements here would be certain, humanly speaking, to reproduce itself in other places. They all knew how difficult it was to keep a fixed note high and clear—how men sank down to a lower one; and therefore it was of special importance that Oxford should strike such a note as would enable those who took their tone from it to raise their insti- tutions to the proper level. And really the whole matter of hospitals for the poor was so essentially a Christian idea that he did not see how it was possible for thenr to be contented with less. He believed there was not the least doubt that until Christianity came to renovate the earth such a thing as a hospital for the poor was never known. They might have searched ancient Rome through and found every conceiv- able provision and pleasure for the rich, the powerful, and the wealthy, and for the multitude when they possessed the power,—spectacles of an imposing and magnificent character, baths of the most luxurious description,—but they would have found no provision for misery or want. Humanity had sunk so near to the mere animal level, that it was with them as it was with animals, when the diseased one had to leave the herd in which it could no longer find sympathy, and creep into a corner to die. (Applause.) But it was Christianity that redressed this mighty evil, that taught what humanity was, and shewed in tlie Eternal Son what it might be, for He who came to redeem man spent a large portion of the little time of His public ministration in healing diseases and bodily suti'cring. Thus medicine and the healing art itself took a new start from Christianity—it was elevated mto its proper place—it was felt to be that which had been done by the Son of Man when upon earth, and that science and knowledge of every kind, especially in those departments which gave man dominion over the lower earth, was in future to be elevated and not to be degraded when spending itself freely in miuistering to the most destitute of mankind. (Applause.) And there was this especial blessing about this kind of work—that they did not, in providing these, teach men to be wrongfully dependent upon the help of others. No charity which relaxed the springs of exertion was a wholesome gift. It might be necessary under certain circumstances, but it must necessarily be accompanied with a great evil. But an accident ward for tlie poor was just that kind of charity which blessed without those drawbacks, in no degree tending to relax self-effort and self-dependence, but bringing the aid of the charitable hand to the sulfering man at a time and under conditions when he could not make any exertion for providing for himself. Well, if that was a true view, one or two eouelusious followed. The first was that there should be nothing niggardly or mea* in their way of dealing with such a subject. Everything which implied charity being pared down to the lowest possible measure was an evil and not a good. In dealing with rates for the poor, they were bound to act upon that principle, because they extracted the poor-rate from the man who was only just above the receiver of the rate, and therefore they must pare everything down to the lowest possible degree that would just eifect their purpose. But everytliing connected with Christian charity should have in it something magnificent; instead of the spirit of grudging there should be something of the feeling of the Great Pattern and some of the magnificence of self-sacrifice in those who provided it. (Applause.) After expressing his conviction that more generous arrangements would evoke greater Uberality on the part of the public, his Lordship referred to the chapel now in progress, through the munificence of one individual, Mr. Combe, and all honour to liim for it, for it was a most important addition to the Institution. Nothing could be worse, he thought, than to associate the worship of God and the religious time spent by its inmates with make-shifts and niggardUness. He trusted there would be a resident chaplain, and he wished this, first of all, as everyone woidd sec, on du'ectly religious grounds, for there might be inmates to whom the speaking of a few words ui times of affliction would make the difterenee of a life. The word spoken in due season, how good it is; and surely this was the due season. But, irrespective of this, he believed the residence of a clergyman amongst medical officers and nurses of such an Institution was, on secondary grounds, of the highest importance. There was in every profession a tendency to become narrow and professional; and hi the medical profession, great and high as it was, if there was nothing perpetually to raise the tone and invest it with those higher characteristics which ought to belong to it in a Cliristian institution, there was a tendency to grow professional and narrow, and, at least in the impression it left in the minds of the reci- pients, hard. God forbid that he should say that there was auythiug really hard in the mind of the medical man, but the presence of a dominant and all-absorbing professional feeling would very often leave the im- pression of hardness, and he thought the presence of a clergyman among such a body of men was exactly that wliich would prevent it, bringing down, as it were, the atmosphere of a higher world not ouly around the patient's bed, but around the hearts and inteUigeiiees of those who were ministering to him. (A])|ilause.) The Right Rev. Prelate concluded by expressing a confident hope that the proceedings of tliat day would inaugurate a new era in the management of this great Institution, and in its infiuence not merely on the poor and afflicted, but, according to the blessed law of charity, on those whom Providence enabled to sympathize with the afflicted, and for Christ's sake with the distressed. The Bishop then closed the proceedings with prayei'.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2145663x_0015.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
