Address to the governors & subscribers of the Charing Cross Hospital, on some extraordinary proceedings that have lately taken place at that institution, and on the management of the Hospital in general / by T.J. Pettigrew.

  • Pettigrew, Thomas Joseph, 1791-1865.
Date:
1836
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Address to the governors & subscribers of the Charing Cross Hospital, on some extraordinary proceedings that have lately taken place at that institution, and on the management of the Hospital in general / by T.J. Pettigrew. 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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    Br. Sigmond, of which I doubt not he will immediately upon his return to town apprize the Governors. The fact is that there has been nothing uncandid on my part in the business; for T gave the Director notice in these words, after some observations upon his conduct on another subject: This, however, relieves me from a delicacy which 1 have hitherto maintained with regard to the subject of a connection with the King's College, to which my attention is now powerfully directed, and which it is my de- termination by every means in my power to promote. I do this upon the ground of its being the most advantageous step for the Hospital as well as the present professors of the Medical School, and I have only to request that you will, as Director of the Hospital and its School, appoint an early meeting to take into consideration the propriety of immediately entering into a negociation with the council of the King's College, with a view to a union between the two Institutions. This letter bears date the 1 Oth of February 1836, and preceded any communications whatever held by me with any authority of King's College; the assertions therefore of the Special Committee are unfounded and fall to the ground. And, as to the nature of the communications them- selves, why, they amounted merely to a little conversation with the Rev. Dr.'D'Oyly and a note or two, all of which I have given in to the Special Committee, and not kept a single copy, deeming them of very little consequence, but in which I was endeavour- ing, as I therein state, to arrive at something like an understand- ing, upon which with fairness I could lay the matter before my colleagues, and show to them that their interests as well as those of the Hospital were not to be neglected. There was no nego- ciation whatever going on upon the subject; it was merely a correspondence to obtain an understanding or basis upon which one might be proceeded in ; and the Member of the Council, Dr. D'Oyly, can be referred to upon the subject. But the matter, although placed upon this ground, is not to be considered as based solely upon it, for an attack has been made upon my character; and upon this head, as a matter which I hold dearer than life itself, I trust I shall be pardoned if I prove to be a little prolix, qi* , During the period of twelve years I was the sole Surgeon of the Institution. It was at that time a Dispensary in Villiers Street, and the duties were arduous. I laboured with assiduity, and endeavoured by every means in my power to promote its welfare and contribute to the increase of its finances. I never derived one farthing of emolument for my services. When it was thought proper to build, and the Institution came to assume the character of a Hospital, I suggested to my colleagues, Dr. Golding and Dr. Shearman, that it would be necessary for me to have some one with whom I might consult on the various