A plea for an hospital on the south side of Glasgow : based on the inadequacy of the existing Glasgow infirmaries : being a paper read to the Glasgow Southern Medical Society, 16th May, 1878 / by Eben. Duncan.

Duncan, Eben.

Date:: 1878

Credit: A plea for an hospital on the south side of Glasgow : based on the inadequacy of the existing Glasgow infirmaries : being a paper read to the Glasgow Southern Medical Society, 16th May, 1878 / by Eben. Duncan. 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.

11/16 page 11

$should be charged in all cases. I would further advocate that each of these hospitals should have in connection with it, but not necessarily in the same building, a dis- pensary giving ovit-door relief in exceptional cases. In establishing such institutions on the south side of Glas- gow, while supplying a great and clamant necessity, we should also greatly benefit the members of this Society. We have all of us, at times, among our patients, cases, medical and surgical, which require such skilled nursing and attention as can only be obtained in the wards of an hospital; and among our poorer patients who gravitate to hospitals, we have many interesting cases which we would like to retain under our own observation. Which of us has not had to contend with ignorant interference with our prescriptions, and ineffi- cient nursing in cases of great interest and importance ? In such a case as a bad compound fracture, or an anxious case of acute disease, how often have we had to lament the evil effects of one act of mistaken kindness, or of care- lessness on the part of an untrained nurse, which has ruined our best endeavours for the safety of our patient! Gentlemen, although in the wards of such an institution tion as I advocate we would not be followed by a crowd of admiring pu])ils, nor would we have the eclat of a large hos- pital, we would be amply repaid by having a field for the accurate investigation of disease, and of the effects of reme- dies which private practice does not always afford. Now, gentlemen, I would venture to suggest that the Southern Medical Society should take up this matter of providing hospital accommodation for the south side of Glasgow, and that a Committee should be appointed for making the necessary enquiries and taking the necessary steps in initiating this movement. The Southern Medical Society is now a large, influential, and well-organised body, and if its members determine that this thing shall be, I am quite convinced that the difficulties which loom so great at the beginning of all such enterprises will shortly disappear. If it were necessary it would be easy to show that a develop- ment of the energies of the Society in this new direction would most surely promote the declared objects of its founders. But it is not necessary to occup)^ your time in this manner. You are the members of a great, a generous, a humane profession, and if I have succeeded in convincing you, as I have convinced myself, that we are surrounded by large numbers of sick and suffering poor, for whom no adequate medical aid has been provided, each one of you will be quite as anxious as I am to provide a suitable remedy.$