Reply by Mr. Quain to a pamphlet entitled The official resignation of the Professorship of Surgery, in University College, London, with observations addressed to the President and Council, by Samuel Cooper, F.R.S., late President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England : with a resolution of the Council of the College respecting Mr. Cooper's statements.

Richard Quain

Date:: 1848

Credit: Reply by Mr. Quain to a pamphlet entitled The official resignation of the Professorship of Surgery, in University College, London, with observations addressed to the President and Council, by Samuel Cooper, F.R.S., late President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England : with a resolution of the Council of the College respecting Mr. Cooper's statements. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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]6 the mode in which the duties of the Chair of Surgery should be performed in future years.” There is, consequently, no foundation for his complaint that such alleged promise has been receded from or violated. “ He is further altogether in error in imagining that the proceedings of the Committee of Five Members * of Council, appointed to consider of the best mode in wdiich the duties of the Surgical Chair might be fulfilled, are not unreservedly approved by the entire Council. On the contrary, the two bodies are identical in feeling, in purpose, and in the conclusion arrived at. “ Mr, Cooper has been strangely imposed upon, if he has been informed that any Member or Members of the Council have been influenced, directly or indirectly, by any of the Pro- fessors, or by any other parties, in the course pursued. On the contrary, no communication whatever w'as held with any one out of the Council, either as to the then Professor, or as to a successor, until some time after the letter to Mr. Cooper, of 20th March, suggesting to him that he should relinquish the Chair of Surgery. “ The complaint of Mr. Cooper, that Professors Quain and Sharpey have combined to exercise an undue influence over the Medical department of the College, is one on which the Council would not have observed, had not that subject con- stituted so large a portion of the Address to the President and Council. The only remark which they will make is this, that the talent, character, and positions of Professors Quain and Sharpey must naturally and deservedly secure considerable weight to their wishes and opinions among their colleagues; while those very circumstances preclude the idea that they could bo guilty of caballing for any unworthy purpose.’’ • This Committee cousistcd of the following Members of the Council :— John Elijah Blunt, Esq. Henry Warburton, Esq. F. Boott, M.D. John Wood, Es(j. The Solicitor General, M.P.

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