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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![[ '!9 ] vanity, but to repel the imputation of incapacity which has been, I think mofl: unjuftly, thrown upon the army phyficians, in oppofition to the experience both of the former and the prefent times.—For though army fur- geons had fubfequently to 1795, been allowed to par- ticipate with the phyficians in the higher offices of the hofpital flaff (and in my opinion properly when ade- quately qualified) there never had, I believe, exifled any fufpicion of that fort of deficiency in the latter which you fuppofe, on the authority of Dr. Jackfon, until Mr. Knight’s promotion to his prefent office. And his having made a difcovery which had efcaped all former obfervation may certainly be confidered as one of the extraordinary events of modern times ; con- lidering that Mr. Knight’s great experience, fervices, and hardffiips had all occurred in London and its neigh- bourhood, and chiefly, if not folely, in the hofpital of the Coldftream regiment of guards; fo that the ex- ercife of his military duties had not probably ever led him into a fingle general hofpital or to an acquaint- ance with a fingle army phyfician;—a circumftance which, however it might naturally difpofe him to think them both ufelefs, could not affifl: him in perceiving their feveral defe£ls. For though the want of know- ledge has often been the caufe of erroneous prejudices and conclufions, it never has, I believe, in any other inftance enabled one to make a difcovery of dif- ficulty and importance. Let us, however, if poffible, recur to pofitive fa61s on this fubje6f, and endeavour to afeertain the duties which properly belong to the offices of infpeftor and deputy infpedlor of hofpitals, that we may fee whether there be any of them which army phyficians are not in every refpeft as well quali- fied to perform as army furgeons.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21928526_0087.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
