The Dublin hospitals : their grants and governing bodies / by E.D. Mapother.

  • Edward Mapother
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

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.

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    a conclusion upon the subject before them that they would weigh the pros and cons, for it was a far more difficult subject than they might imagine. They should look back to the Dublin School of Medicine and see what it was when he was a boy—the Dublin School was one in which it was supposed medicine could not be taught. There was a medical school connected with Trinity College attended by about forty students. The College of Surgeons was then strug- glmg into existence. He went to Edinburgh under the impression that medicine could not he taught at home; just as to-day, to their disgrace, it was necessary to go to Edinburgh to learn the veterinary art. What had the Dublin School risen to in a few years ? It had risen to an eminence which had no parallel elsewhere in their time. Its name had reached America and every part of Europe. Irishmen filled three-fourths of the situations in the army and navy. The London journals had written on the Dublin hospitals. He had scarcely patience to talk on this subject; but he would say that those articles in the London papers were not written for love of Ireland—their criticism was meant to injure, not to serve. He per- fectly agreed with Dr. Haughton when he said they had nothing to learn from the London hospitals, but much to teach. Sir D. Corrigan then spoke of the harmony which prevailed amongst the members of the medical profession, such as did not exist in London or Edin- burgh. He referred to the London journals of last week, showing that squabbles in the London hospitals had led to trials in the Lon- don courts, where gossip and personal slander formed the subject of investigation. There was no such thing known in Dublin. The Dublin School of Medicine, from having only a class of about one hundred students, now had a class of about one thousand, and these were not supported in Dublin at less than £ioo per annum each. If he added about half that number for the young men coming to Dublin to ]>repare for the Indian Civil Service—for Irishmen were taking the lead in all these examinations—he might say that the students caused an expenditure in Dublin of about £150,000 per annum. They had often heard discussion as to the loss of £30,000 a year to Dublin if the Lord Lieutenancy of Ireland were abolished, yet here were the students of Dublin spending £150,000 per annum amongst the hard working shopkeepers, and the persons who let lodgings in the city. They did not want to say that their institu- tions had no faults ; but they should not allow charges to be made without contradiction. Before the Medical Charities Committee of the House of Commons, in 1843, he stated that the purchase system was the best, and the opinion which he then gave he still adhered to. He did not mean to say that all other modes of election should be abolished, but he contended that promotion by purchase was not what the opponents of the system represented it. His first entrance into the medical profession was as a candidate for a dispensary in Dublin, where he followed Abraham Colics. lie asked a man in the Liberties for his vote, and he asked him his qualifications. Just as the conversation was going on the sho])kceper asked to be excused, as he had to attend a lady. The lady” was his (Sir I'ominic’s) mother’s cook. 'Ihe man purcha.sed kitchcn-stufi', and as soon as
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