The evidence taken before a committee of the House of Commons respecting the asylum at York : with observations and notes, and a letter to the committee &c. &c. &c. / by Godfrey Higgins.

Godfrey Higgins

Date:: 1816

Credit: The evidence taken before a committee of the House of Commons respecting the asylum at York : with observations and notes, and a letter to the committee &c. &c. &c. / by Godfrey Higgins. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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$ever, as lie wishes to have the story of the broken leg* known, I shall take the liberty of inserting the afiidavits relating to it in the Appendix, No. III. I wish Dr. Best had favoured the Committee with the names of the witnesses he proposed to call, to refute this charge. 1 hope they were not of the copart- nership at the Asylum,—the publishers of false statements of deaths,—or the burners of books,—or the servants whose evi- dence, on oath, the Archbishop would not receive. The affida- vits were laid on the table of the Committee of Ljquhy by me, to be used as they might think proper : after some deliberation, I iivas called in, and asked if I had any specific charge to make against Dr. Best: I replied, no ; that as the affidavits had been tendered to me, I thought I ought not to suppress them, and, accordingly, I presented them to the Committee of Inquiry, who, no doubt, would do with them what was proper and right. They were returned to me without any observation. It is for you, Gentlemen, to judge whether the Committee did right in refus- ing to inquire. I think common justice to Dr. Best required that an inquiry should take place. I should not now produce those affidavits, if the Doctor had not rendered their production necessary to my justification. I have discussed the matter of the emoluhients so much at large in my letter, that it is unnecessary to say any thing here. I have clearly shewn, that Dr. Best was entitled to nothing but the fees from opulent patients; and it is very w^ell he does not make any great merit of the most prudent of all his actions, viz. giving up 200/. a year, when he could no longer keep the whole, to secure the remaining 1400A '/fhe assertion at page 15, that the pliysician had the \vn<>]s manage- ment of the institution, is not accurate, the subordinate officers were not appointed by the physician, and the respective-duties of each were re- gulated, not by him. but by the laws enacted for the purpose by the Governors. The constitution of the Asylum was undoubtedly faulty, and the plan upon which it was built ill adapted to its purpose; but it would be too much to make the physician for the time being responsible either for the legislative acts of the Governors during forty years, or for the evils unavoidably arising from the inappropriate structure ot the. buildings.' No one ever said that Dr. Best was responsible for the bad construction of the buildings; neither could he be held respon- sible for many otheji' things, as long as visitors and committees were appointed ; but, after the Governors had ceased to appoint either, and had confided every thing to him, a great responsibi- lity naturally devolved upon him ; and if any thing was then wrong, it was his duty to state it to one of the four quarterly courtsj or the general court; to which he made his reports- which$