An introductory address delivered at the Westminster Hospital, October 1st, 1868, on the occasion of the opening of the medical session / by Francis Mason.

  • Mason, Francis
Date:
[1868]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An introductory address delivered at the Westminster Hospital, October 1st, 1868, on the occasion of the opening of the medical session / by Francis Mason. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    rough, who took great interest in this charity, a petition was addressed in 1721 to King George the First for his Royal protection to it, grounded in part on an apprehen¬ sion then entertained that the plague was likely to visit these dominions. The Princess Royal became a subscriber, and the gradual increase of its funds to about £700 a year at length enabled the governors to open a house in Chapel Street for sixty patients on the 10th of June, 1724. Two years afterwards the distinguished lithotomist, Cheselden, became Surgeon to the hospital, which appointment he held for fifteen years. His portrait is in the Board-room together with those of many other eminent Surgeons and Physicians who have at different periods rendered their services to the hospital. The removal of the establishment to James street took place in 1733^ but n°t until after much controversy amongst the Governors, many of whom preferred the site of Lanes- borough House, near Hyde Park Corner, and accordingly gave their interest to establish what is now St. George’s Hospital. Cheselden and the celebrated Dr. Mead adhered to the parent institution. I cannot pass these names un¬ noticed, for it is well known that Dr. Mead was an intimate fiiend of the poet Pope, and of Newton. Pope, in speak¬ ing of his medical attendants, says :— Weak tho’ I am in limb, and short of sight, Far from a lynx, and not a giant quite, I’d do what Mead and Cheselden advise, To keep these limbs, and to preserve these eyes.,? Notwithstanding its vicissitudes at that time, the Royal patronage has never been withdrawn from it. Queen Charlotte became its patroness, and at her death the title of patron was accepted by his Majesty George the Fourth,
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