Testimonials in favour of George Ballingall.

Date:
1815
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Testimonials in favour of George Ballingall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    which the circumstances of his situation allow in converting the surgical practice of the Royal Infirmary to purposes of practical utility. “ In addition to the sketches of the cases deemed worthy of clinical remark, he has arranged in the tabular form the dis- eases and accidents, and the general results of the method of treatment. This is doubtless one of the principal uses of hospitals, that the profession and the public at large may judge of the comparative merit of the curative methods pur- sued by different surgeons, and in different institutions. It is easy to see, however, that unless it can be done upon an ex- tensive scale, and continued for a series of years,—done, in short, as the business not of an individual medical officer, but of the institution at large, it is impossible to anticipate those useful consequences to which it might, under other circum- stances, give rise. It is impossible to doubt that it is the de- sire, as it must be the interest, of the profession at large, to see reports of this kind more frequently ; and the example of Dr. Ballingall might be advantageously followed by other hospital surgeons.”—Edin. Med. and Surg. Journal, vol. xxxi. We wish the hospital surgeons generally would follow Dr. BallingalFs example in publishing a regular report of the more interesting cases submitted to their care. Such a prac- tice would tend, more than any thing we know, to the ad- vancement of medical science. Until within these very few years the profession was totally ignorant of what was going forward within the walls of the hospitals of this country, with the exception of a few cases published occasionally in illus- tration of the practice of the author in particular diseases.” —London Med. and S2i7'g. Journal, vol. i. “ We are extremely glad to see Dr. Ballingall set so good an example to the surgeons of Edinburgh—and indeed, to the surgeons and physicians of all public institutions. The publi-