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.
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![he had attended the lady he attended him. He obtained that man’s support, hut he would not say by what agency. The next election was at Jervis-street Hospital. The election rested between three hundred and four hundred governors, and a number of his friends subscribed two guineas each to become governors. Where the money came from he was not bound to tell; but it was a very curious thing that whatever might be the evils of a contested election in large popular bodies, whether in regard to politics or hospitals, it was curious the development of latent philanthropy that came out. It was a very extraordinary thing that on the eve of a con- tested election men went about seeking whom they might deliver from prison ; and on the eve of a medical election men rushed in to subscribe their money for the good of the public. Now he would come to the oligarchy, where a certain election was vested in a body of governors; a single vote became of the greatest consequence, and of all the tribunals in the world the one that most discovered his aptitude for the place was the Chamber of Commerce. He went in there and told a friend that so and so would vote against him. The friend said he would not, and writing his name on a piece of news- paper said, “ Give him that and tell him to vote for you.” He said, “ Oh I could not, for I was speaking to him, and he was not inclined to However, he w'ent to him and the voter said, when he saw the magic name, “ Since yesterday I have enquired into the re- lative merits of the candidates—your qualifications are of such a high order that I must break my promise to the other candidates.” He was told afterwards “ That man who sent the bit of paper dis- counts for the other.” He heard an important admission from ]\Ir. Haughton, that he belonged some years ago to an oligarchical body, and he gave up in desjiair the idea of distinguishing between the qualities of candidates, and what he did was simply to vote for per- sonal considerations. Whatever might be the faults of election by lay committees, the election worst of all was the election by a medi- cal board. He did not expect to have that “hear, hear.” He thought that was an election that was open to most corruption, be- cause it was perfectly impossible for five or six men, no matter how pure their motives might be in the hospital, not to prefer any one of the young men they had known themselves—their own relatives for instance to strangers. So he looked upon that as the worst of all, because with regard to the medical board there was no fair play at all. Dr. Mapother had adduced an example of a board with a qua- lification. He said that at his hospital—which of course was per- fection from the officers selected—the mode of election was that the medical board recommended, and that the ladies choose.' Db. Haughton—“ Adopt.” Sir Dominic Cobbigan—What chance, then, would old felloAvs have with a man like Dr. Mapother 1 He protested against the medical board, and he protested a thousand times more against this tribunal. They had now the sixth mode of election, which had re- ceived the acZ captandum name of “ concursus. He had _ had ex- perience of the concursus, and he was bitten by it. On his return from the Continent he hoisted the flag of excelsior, and said they](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22346247_0028.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
