Report of Drs. Nelson and MacDonnell, and Zephirin Perrault, Esq., advocate, of the Quebec Marine and Emigrant Hospital / [Wolfred Nelson].

  • Nelson, Wolfred, 1846-1913.
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of Drs. Nelson and MacDonnell, and Zephirin Perrault, Esq., advocate, of the Quebec Marine and Emigrant Hospital / [Wolfred Nelson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    109/146 page 109
    ie CO th presence of Dr. Landry. Above all, Dr. Douglas should have given to his letter a date which was not that upon which must have been written (as may be ascer- tained by reference to the date of the letters of Drs. Hall and Jackson, upon which he comments, his being dated the 17th and theirs the 21st) to state that the Com- missioners had not yet answered Dr. Painchaud’s letter on that subject. The Commissioners would wish to believe Dr. Douglas ; they would, for his sake, that all he alleges having said about Dr. Lemieux and Dr. Beaubien in the investigations concerning Mr. Cutter, should have been really mentioned. They feel desirous that the Visiting Physicians and Dr. Douglas, who should visit the Hospital every day and make a Report to the Commissioners of all improprieties of conduct there, had warned them of those mal-practices and irregularities. Every one would then have done his duty. Mr. Cutter would not then have committed all the disorders of which he has been proved guilty, and Dr. Douglas would not have ‘‘ shamefully led his confréres into error,’? spread calumnious reports con- cerning the Hospital, and excited the public against the Institution. Dr. Douglas in speaking of the manner in which he has discharged his duties as Visiting Physician, of the manner in which the Hospital was conducted when he commanded there as sole master, when almost every body in it was his creature, and when all was done accoding to his will, obliges the Commissioners once more to repeat that he has not discharged his duties, and that he has always tried to render the task imposed upon them difhcult and arduous. The Commis-: -sioners pray His Excellency to refer to the letter addressed by Dr. Douglas to the | Provincial Secretary after the nomination of the other Visiting Physicians. From that time which was previous to the appointment of the present Commission, he has not only shewn a want of good will, but he has not given the assistance which was of right to be expected from him in the management of the Hospital. The Commissioners feel themselves under the necessity of stating what is already established in their answers to the charges of three Visiting Physicians, that Dr. Douglas did not make his visits regularly, and did not give the information upon the abuses and wants of the Hospital, which the rules of the establishment and his office of paid Visiting Physician required, more particularly, from him. The Commissioners may in justice be led to suppose that the complaints which Dr. Douglas states had been made by him in the course of conversation with the President, and which he formerly refused to put down in writing and address officially to the Commission were the consequent effects of a plan formed before hand, and were necessarily to precede the complaints of the Visiting Phy- sicians and of the Board of Trade. For why obstinately refuse to put his com- plaints down in writing? And why when his quarter had begun on the fifteenth of August and was to finish on the fifteenth of November, wait ti:] that last month before addressing the President of the Commission? Dr. Douglas took charge of the Hospital at a time when there were a great number of patients, and after having suffered to go on during nearly three months, the alleged abuses, impro- prieties, dereliction of duty and mal-practices, which must have come to his knowledge, if he did his duty, he comes when his time of attendance is nearly over, when the number of patients is considerably diminished, and then, for the first time, complains of the quality of the diet and of the want of knives and forks for the patients ; for to that alone were his verbal communications confined. About one month after December, 1850, at a time when there were but very few patients in the Hospital, and while the Commissioners were engaged in the investigation on Mr. Cutter, Dr. Douglas gets the other Visiting Physicians to sign a letter informing the Commission that a certain rule for the admission of the friends of the patients had lately led to abuses, and that the Hospital wanted bedsteads, bed- ding and clothing. Without having addressed any other communcation to the Commissioners for more than eighteen months previous, Dr. Douglas gets again the Visiting Physicians to complain to Government, on the 27th January following,
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3