Memoir on the surgical diseases of the poor, addressed to the surgeons, clergy, and heritors, in the remote parts of the country.

  • John Bell
Date:
1808
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Memoir on the surgical diseases of the poor, addressed to the surgeons, clergy, and heritors, in the remote parts of the country. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    try furgeon is honeftly doubtful of his own opinion, and has no one to affift him in his confutations ; many, where the operation which he deliberately approves of, and would mod willingly perform, is yet too full of danger to be attempted on his own mere authority ; often he is deterred by the clamours of relations, the jealoufy of rivals, or the prejudices of the well-meaning but ignorant neighbours ; and often he perceives it to be too much to attempt a critical operation, ill appointed as he often is with inftruments or apparatus, and unafiifted. Thefe then are to be added to the innumerable caufes which bring people dying of incurable difeafes to the ca- pital of the country. I fhould not dare to publilh this Short memoir, did I not publilh at the fame mo- ment a volume on thefe very fubjeds, full of drawings and narratives of fuch dis- orders grown defperate by delay, and requiring operations proportionately def- perate ; nor fhould I prefume to defcribe thus the imperfedions of our inftitutions and the fufferings of the poor, had I not made their difeafes, and the means of re- lieving them, the fludy and bufinefs of my life. 1 know by experience to what extent thefe duties mull, when I thus avowedly undertake them, occupy my hours, and fill my mind ; but I alfo know how little they need interrupt more neceflary, or rather more felfilh duties: for during the moll anxious periods of my leduring, I never failed to note down every remarkable cafe in the Royal Infirmary, and take the drawings with my own hand ; and fince then I have, in the bufieft moments of my practice, drawn anatomical plans of every operation I have performed, and written every cafe with diligence, finding always an hour to devote to this favourite purfuit. This is the courfe of ftudy and pradice which makes every ordinary duty fit lighter on the mind, and enables me to calculate every claim on my time, and to fulfil every duty with alacrity. “ The duty we delight in phyfics pain.” Pradice thus diligently purfued is true experience ; and the improvement I have derived in all times from my attention to the poor fliould be repaid where it mull be fo ufeful, where it is fojuftly due. Thefe charities form a continual fource of improvement to the young men whofe education is intrufted to my care ; and I have ever endeavoured to teach them a humane and patient temper by lelfons of pradice and examples of diligence. May I not acknowledge, that I ftill am occu- pied with ftudy, and defire to improve ? When that zeal expires, or is abforbed in more felfifh purfuits, a profeflional man is of little value indeed to any rank of his fellow citizens.
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