The Dublin hospitals : their grants and governing bodies / by E.D. Mapother.
- Edward Mapother
- Date:
- 1869
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The Dublin hospitals : their grants and governing bodies / by E.D. Mapother. 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.
22/34 page 20
![this argument presses into its service. Commercial motives are no doubt the predominating ones in trading and manufacturing iudus- try ; even in the liberid professions, they secure the performance of routine duties with tolerable efficiency. But the highest class of work was never yet done from pecuniary motives, but for love of the work itself. It is so in hospitals as in the council chamber, the senate, the held of battle, the pliilosopher’s closet. But if we must speak of those lower motives which are undoubtedly of use in keep- ing up a certain amount of attention to official duties, I ask, have not the meilical officers all the needful stimulus in the fact that their class fees will rise or fall according as the hospital lises or falls in public estimation ? This motive will operate with precisely equal strength whether the officer has acquired his post gratuitously or purchased it with money. And if so, what is the use of superadding the motive of fear, the fear of losing a large investment, except, per- haps, to induce here and there a low-to]ied man to curry favour with his class by sycophautic arts or less worthy compliances. I make a like reply to the argument which pleads for leaving the election of the hospital officer in the hands of the existing medical staff of the hospital, on the plea that they are likely to make a good appointment, because a good appointment would tend to enlarge their class of students. I believe, sir, that good appointments are made from better motives ; and that if medical men as a rule were to listen to the mere promptings of pecuniary interest, it is not the best col- league they would elect but a mediocre one, whose rivalry with them in the held of private practice might be safely encountered. But I would deprive tliem of the power of electing to vacancie.s, because, as long as this power exists, there will be always an impossibility of being sure that the election is not tainted with improper motives. I now come to an argument, or rather a pitiful plea in favour of the purchase system, which, though it has not been advanced in this room, forms the staple of an article which appeared in a Dublin newspaper, the article being written apropos of Dr. Mapother’s paper. This plea may be briefly described as the “ social standing ” plea. It is said, or hinted, that the necessity of paying down £500, as in Jervis-street, or £1,000, as in the Meath, or £1,250 as in Mercer’s, for an hospital appointment, is a gua- rantee of the payer’s social standing, and keeps the medical pro- fession, forsooth, respectable ! What a notion that writer must have of the respectability of the medical profession ! William Hun- ter, pursuing his dissections in Edinburgh through the winter months, and retiring to serve as an apothecary in a small country town in summer, was not, I suppose, respectable. Learning, genius, honest labour in a generous and noble calling, the refinement of mind and manners produced by a large and liberal education, do not make men respectable, unless they can back up their claims to the respect of flunkey souls by the possession of at least £500 ! ^ul to what profession is this test of social standing to be applied 1 To that which is of all professions the least conventional and the most real and essentially human ; to that which is brought face to face with nature at every step, and plies its beneficent mission](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22346247_0024.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
