A letter to the Commissioners of Military Enquiry : containing animadversions on some parts of their fifth report ; and an examination of the principles on which the medical department of armies ought to be formed / by Edward Nathaniel Bancroft.
- Date:
- 1808
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A letter to the Commissioners of Military Enquiry : containing animadversions on some parts of their fifth report ; and an examination of the principles on which the medical department of armies ought to be formed / by Edward Nathaniel Bancroft. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![whofe authority is almoft as weighty and powerful in your minds, as Dr. Jackfon’s, and whofe prejudices and interefts are to the full as flrong, both in favour of the furgeons, and in oppofition to the phyficians, has told you (fee p. 159 of your Report,] that in confcqucncc ofaprofecution begun by himfelf,one regimental furgeon J)ad been difmifled the fervice/* That another had “ refigned to avoid a court martial,” and that in confe- quence of a report made by him (Dr. B.) when in Jerfey, “ a furgeon to the forces, and two regimental furgeons were removed from their fituations for /V/- tfficiency” And that “ feveral fimilar inftances” had come within his knowledge. Being afterwards afked (Quell. 8th.) about the competency of the furgeons of the line in general; he anfwered, I think they arc much improved of late, but fiill capable of further improvementWhen fuch fads are admitted by Dr. Borland, what might not be obtained from per- fons lefs partial to the regimental furgeons ? But even if there had been no fuch evidence, it appears to me very unlikely that young men with only the ufual and fcanty acquihtions of hofpital-mates, without proper books or leifure for reading, and with military exam- ples and habits very unfavourable to thought and re- fledion, could, in a very few years, as you fuppofe, qualify themfelves, fo as to become not only good fur- geons, but alfo better phyficians than men who were regularly and liberally educated to that part only of the pradice of medicine^ and who, from early youth have been devoted, at a great expence, to the attainment of knowledge from univerfitics, public hofpitals, lec- tures, books, &c. To borrow the words of Dr. Jackfon, ‘Dhe me- dical art is an art of tedious acquifition,” “ fo that](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21928526_0031.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
