Correspondence and statements regarding the teaching of clinical medicine in the University of Edinburgh, 1855-1857 : with a sequel / by T. Laycock.
- Thomas Laycock
- Date:
- 1857
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Correspondence and statements regarding the teaching of clinical medicine in the University of Edinburgh, 1855-1857 : with a sequel / by T. Laycock. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![30tli October, Dr. Balfour (the Dean) informed me that Mr. Syme dictated to him the very words. Mr. Syme is therefore, according to the evidence of the secretary, responsible for that minute, inasmuch as he caused it to be made. 3. The alleged alteration in the minute was also made, in like manner, at the instance of Mr. Syme, at a meeting of the Faculty on November 3d last. Extract from Minutes of Faculty, November 3 :— “ Mr. Syme stated that his report to the Faculty on the 22d July ought to have been entered thus ;—‘ Mr. Syme reported that he had arranged in regard to the duties of the Clinical Professors, and had arbitrated between Drs. Bennett and Laycock in regard to their fees, and that he considered matters to be now adjusted.’ ” There is nothing here to confirm Mr. Syme’s assertion, that the change was made “by the Secretary to correct an error of his own the responsibility of it rests evidently with Mr. Syme. 4. Mr. Syme affirms that “ the substitution of ‘ arranged’ instead of ‘ arbitrated’ ” is “ the onl^ alteration to which my statement can possibly have reference.” Does Mr. Syme mean to argue that the intent and effect of an alteration are not the questions in cases of this kind ? Surely he must know that an alteration may be greater in its effect for an intended purpose by the change of one suitable word, than of one hundred (see p. 67, §11). The most successful forgeries are those in which the greatest effect is produced by the smallest alteration ; as, for example, by the addition of a cypher after one or two others. But even as to the mere verbal extent of alteration, Mr. Syme has evidently done more than substitute one word for another; he has, in truth, added to the sentence a whole limb, namely, “ that he had arranged as to the duties of the Clinical Professors^’' nothing of which is sub¬ stantially in the original minute. 5. Mr. Syme himself concedes that he made the alteration, so that the two entries of the 27th October, in which he had minuted his alleged “ arrangement ” or “ agreement ” between Dr. Bennett and myself, and that of the 22d July, in which, as altered^ he “ referred ” to them, might suit. He says, “ the former of these expressions p. e., the word ‘ arranged ’] referred to an agreement [the ‘ arrangement ’] in regard to their lectures for the future,” etc. But as this “ arrangement ” had never been in the minutes until October 27th, the word “ arranged,” so interpolated in minutes of 22d July, could only refer to the “arrangement” as recorded in October 27th. The original minute was exactly in accordance with his position in July of arbitrator; for](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30563240_0057.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
