In memoriam : Edmund A. Parkes / [Sir William Aitken].

  • William Aitken
Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: In memoriam : Edmund A. Parkes / [Sir William Aitken]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Lord Herbert were both present at the opening lecture sixteen years ago. Sir James Gibson died, as his predecessor Dr. Alexander died, and as Lord Herbert died—at the post of honour and of duty in the public service—overborne by the great and continuous strain of official work. It killed them all; and truly has it been written, “ Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.” The post of Director- General to a great public department, like that of the Army Medical Service, is by no means an easy one. Although chief of a depart- ment, he is not his own master. He is only one of many chiefs who ought to work together for the public good; for the army consists of many departments, all of which are subordinate to the Secretary of State for War—at whose bidding the Medical Director-General may have to act even against his own better judgment in matters which concern his administration. But whatever he does, it is our duty to believe that it is done for the public good, and for the benefit of the army ; and that, therefore, he ought to have the sympathy of the officers of his department in the administration of it, and the moral support of all right thinking men in the very responsible and often harassing duties of his office. This crown of office has too often been “ but a wreath of thorns,” bringing dangers, troubles, cares, and sleepless nights to him who has worn it; for upon his shoulders each man’s burden in the department is placed; while he has but the inward satisfaction of knowing that his honour, virtue, merit, and chief praise lie in the fact, that for the public good all this weight he bears. A third great loss we sustained at the close of 1874, by the death of Sir Ranald Martin, Physician to the Council of India, and its representative on our Senate. He was a distinguished physician and medical officer of the Indian service. A veteran prince of sanitary reformers, he was one of those men who took an active part in the organisation of this School, all of whom, with one exception—another distinguished pioneer in sanitary science, Dr. John Sutherland—are now no more. Sir Ranald Martin was a member of the Senate of this School from the commencement up to the time of his death, a year and a half ago. He was a man of noble presence, possessed of a kind and genial disposition, who by his writings and by his indomitable energy and perseverance, contributed greatly to the formation and establishment of this School, having been a member of the several sanitary commissions which eventually led to its organisation. Now we have just sustained the last, and to us the greatest loss of all, by the death of Dr. Parkes, which took place nineteen days ago, after a lengthened illness, borne with his own characteristic patience