The London medical schools.

  • William Gilbert
Date:
[1877?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The London medical schools. 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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    f THE LONDON MEDICAL SCHOOLS. 61 there would be but little difficulty in proving that the greater the number of pupils attached to a hospital, the heavier is its average ] mortality. From an article in the British Medical Journal, October, j 1876, we find that in two hospitals alone, having dissecting-rooms on the ground-plan of the building, and with, possibly, a full third of i the whole of the medical pupils within the metropolis between them, j there were in that year alone no fewer than one hundred and ; fourteen cases of pyaemia and erysipelas, out of which no less than thirty-four proved fatal; while in the Poplar Hospital, for surgical cases alone, in which there is neither dissecting-room nor medical I school, but which received more serious cases than the two hospitals alluded to put together, there was not a single case during the whole of the year. Again, instead of the dresserships and other minor l hospital appointments being- paid for by extra fees, they should be i selected by competition from the whole body of pupils within the metropolis, and if the same rule could hold good with the assistant surgeons and physicians as well it would be a great advantage to the : profession at large. At the present time science and skill, as well as | advanced medical knowledge, has but little to do with the selections of these appointments, personal interest being far more effective than either. There would be no difficulty in proving, also, that, till very lately, even if the practice be now totally extinct, money was brought to bear in the choice of the medical staff of the hospitals; in fact, it is said that it was not altogether extinct at the time of the election j of Sir James Paget at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, and the thanks of the profession are due to this gentleman and his supporters, who resolutely determined that his skill and reputation should alone form the basis of his appointment. William Gtlbeiit.
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