In memoriam Ernest Hart, M.R.C.S., D.C.L. for over thirty years editor of the British Medical Journal and for twenty-five years Chairman of the Parliamentary Bills Committee of the British Medical Association / [Ernest Hart].
- Hart, Ernest, 1835-1898
- Date:
- 1898
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: In memoriam Ernest Hart, M.R.C.S., D.C.L. for over thirty years editor of the British Medical Journal and for twenty-five years Chairman of the Parliamentary Bills Committee of the British Medical Association / [Ernest Hart]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![peculiar force and effect, and it is in no small measure due to his efforts that so much has been recently done to improve the conditions under which the pilgrimage is made. Sir Charles Elliott, the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal at the time of Mr. Hart’s visit, was the first to appreciate and give a hearty welcome to his mission ; and when proposing a vote of thanks to Dr. Harvey for his presidential address to the Indian Medical Congress, he spoke in the following terms on the pilgrim question: Another subject which has been a good deal in the mind of the Govern¬ ment is that regarding cholera among Mecca pilgrims. Our distinguished visitor, Mr. Hart, delivered a lecture on the subject on Saturday, and showed the value of what Dr. Harvey said about the importance of carrying the mind of the public with us. Any attempt that we may make to put down the evils which attend the pilgrimage to Mecca, in the course of which so many of our fellow subjects in this country suffer seriously and perishon the way, is to be welcomed. They start from this place in a state of disease and in a state of poverty, by reason of which they are unable to carry out the journey properly and safely. To relieve this there are excellent philanthropic people, who would desire to do much, but it is absolutely impossible to do anything unless we can carry the people with us, and unless we can carry the feelings and wishes of the people along us. No doubt that Mohammedans are the 'persons from whom the pilgrims are drawn, and I thank Mr. Hart for my own part and on behalf of the Government for the trouble he has taken in drawing together the members of the Mohammedan community, whose leading representatives met him a few days ago, to share his views and to see with his eyes. Keeping his mind always open to find the cause of great epidemics and to discover their prevention, Ernest Hart perceived clearly that many of the great epidemics of cholera sprang from the massing of unwashed pilgrims at Mecca, spreading thence to Europe along the homeward path of these pilgrims. In order to bring the subject home to the public mind he published an illustrated series of papers in the Daily Graphic, entitled The Pilgrim Path of Cholera. Attention was aroused by these articles in influential quarters, and the atten¬ tion of the Queen was drawn to the great risks her Indian sub¬ jects ran in the pilgrimage to Mecca. It was proposed that Mr. Hart should go, in the summer of 1894, to Constantinople, charged with the high mission of laying the whole subj ect before the Sultan, and trying to get him to move as the head of the Mohammedan Church, and enforce such sanitary measures as would prevent the dissemination of cholera at Mecca. Mr. Hart was on the point of starting, and had even taken his railway ticket, and was boldly going alone on this mission in a wretched state of health, when at the last moment, yielding to the entreaties of his wife, he gave it up, it being arranged that they should go to India later on, for him to raise there the whole question of the sanitation of Mecca among the Indian Mohammedans, and to induce them to petition the Sultan for the reforms necessary. The result of which was that Mr. Hart received an influential invitation from Hyderauhd asking him to hold a meeting there on the subject. He sailed for India with Mrs. Hart in December, 1894. He first addressed a meeting of the leading Mohammedans under the presidency of the Prince of Oude in Calcutta, and then proceeded to Hyderabad in the Deccan. His Reception and the great Meeting of Mohammedan _ at Hyderabad. . He was received at the station with a public torchlight proces sion, and was presented with an address and a silver caske Iv.01? 1 e na^ve an(^ English doctors. During the fortnigh that he was in Hyderabad, making his plans and formin public opinion, he was entertained by the leading nativ the Pr]me Minister, and the Shah Kadri, the hea< ol the Mohammedan Church in Hyderabad. On the afternoo: of the great public meeting summoned to consider the sani tatmn of Mecca a public half-holiday was given, and it wa calculated that no fewer than 5,000 Mohammedans assemble' in the public gardens, under the most unusual circumstanc of hearing an European and “ Infidel ” address Mohammedan on the sanitation of their holy places. The meeting wa honoured by the presence on the platform of the Prim Minister, the Resident and the Shah Kadri. The speeche were given in Urdu, Mr. Hart’s speech being translate sentence by sentence by Ali Mahomet Belgrami. A fu! account appeared in the Journal at the time. Hyderabad is, as is well known, the hotbed of fanatic Mohammedanism. The wildest rumours were set about in the bazaars as to Mr. Hart’s supposed intention of obtaining the closure of the Zem Zem well; and there is no doubt that he ran considerable personal risks in thus addressing such a vast meeting of fanatical Mohammedans. But quite undaunted Mr. Hart proceeded steadily on his self-imposed mission, and having obtained at the meeting a vote in favour of his pro¬ posals of sanitation, he trusted that the first step had been made in the reform he so ardently desired to see carried out. Though suffering from severe intestinal trouble and chill, he started from Hyderabad to fulfil an engagement to address a Mohammedan meeting at Aligahr; but on reaching Agra he was struck down by dysentery. He was conveyed to a dak bungalow overlooking the Jumna, lent by the Collector, and here he lay almost at the point of death for a fortnight. Desperately ill as he was, he could with difficulty be persuaded to give up his engagements to address the meetings of Mohammedans which had been arranged in the North-West Provinces. As soon as he could be moved he was carried down to Bombay, and came home without delay by the long sea journey. Nursed all the way hofrne by his wife he slowly recovered strength, but had not been home a month when he was laid up by an attack of influenza and pneumonia. His health never really recovered from these two attacks of severe illness. His Energy in Spite of Increasing Ill-health. Till the year 1883 Ernest Hart enjoyed vigorous health, and had the untiring energy of a keen, wiry, nervous organisa¬ tion. He drew enjoyment from many sources—from his active participation in public affairs, as well as from his happy appreciation of natural beauty. Directly publishing day was passed, and the Journal, which was the pride of his life, was out, he and his wife quitted London, according to an invariable custom, and spent the week-end quietly to¬ gether in the country, passing the time either riding on horseback or on the river. In the late autumn of 1883, when apparently in good health, rapid and progressive emaciation and nervous restlessness led to an examination, and the painful discovery that he was the victim of that most intract¬ able disease, diabetes. Symptoms soon became more marked, and his condition at his then age, 48, was rather serious. He did not, however, abate one iota of his work ; indeed, the reverse, as he took on himself the arduous labours involved in being an active member of the executive of the Health Exhibition, which was, in fact, largely due to his initiative. With the double object of interviewing the King of Italy on a mission from this Committee, and for the benefit of his health, he went to Italy in the early spring of 1884. Though he knew he was struck by a disease which never forgives, he returned home determined to defy it to his utmost, and to bear himself bravely. “ I will go on to the end; I should hate to be pitied,” he would say. But from the time that it was discovered that he had diabetes till his death, fourteen years later, he always suffered more or less from the dyspeptic and nervous troubles with which that disease torments its victims. A careful and special study of diabetic dietaries was made by his wife, and his diet was carefully arranged in view of these. In 1885 he went to Carlsbad, after the Brighton meeting, and derived so much benefit from the treatment that for four successive summers he made a practice of going thither for two or three weeks directly the annual Association meet¬ ing was over. It was found that ocean journeys did more to restore him when fatigued, and to banish dyspepsia and de¬ pression, than anything else. He consequently arranged to take his holiday in the early spring, when he and his wife used to get away from the ubiquitous post on long and heartily-enjoyed cruises to Egypt, to Corfu, to Madeira, to the Canary Islands, to the West Indies, and on two occasions, when long leaves of absence were granted, to Japan and to India and Burma. But even on these pleasurable journeys, taken for health’s sake, he never forgot the main objects of his life, namely, the improvement of public health and the furtherance of the Journal and Association. Thus in Cairo, in 1885, his voluntary investigations into, and forcible repre¬ sentations as to, the insanitary condition of the city since](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30595745_0012.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
