A letter to the Educational Endowments Commissioners (Scotland) / [James D. Gillespie].

Date:
[1884]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to the Educational Endowments Commissioners (Scotland) / [James D. Gillespie]. 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.

    6/20 (page 4)
    put up a lasting monument to the memory of a friend to the deserving poor. But while doing so they took care that all the details of the interior should be in strict accordance and harmony with the class of children to he elected; and those educational enthusiasts who so unjustly call it a palace for paupers (and I could point to some of your Board who so term it) cannot hut admit that on inspecting the building the extreme plainness of the interior is painfully manifest. In 1850, when Donaldson's Hospital was opened, the various charitable institutions for children under the control of the Merchant Company were still in existence in their original shape, being truly then for the maintenance as well as educa- tion of their inmates, so the Governors thought that a wider and more efficient range might be given to the charity by the introduction of a number of deaf-mutes. This has accordingly been done, and deaf-mutes from the United Kingdom, and even outside the realm, whose parents could ill afford the costly education in their case, have enjoyed the privileges of the Institution. It may be said that the Governors should have devoted the whole building to this special class, but the teachers of deaf-mutes think it of much importance that they should consort with speaking children, and the Governors therefore, in strict accordance with the Will of the Founder, elected from the humblest deserving but destitute classes a certain number of hearing children, the great majority of whom were orphans. This has been attended with the happiest results, for it has been found to help largely the adaptation of the deaf-mute to the struggle with the world in after life, while it has in no degree injured the hearing children, but rather developed in them a care and considera- tion for their afflicted school-fellows, which cannot but exercise a genial influence on their moral training. Since its foundation in 1850 the Hospital has been judiciously managed: no objection lias ever been brought against the Governors that they have neglected or overstepped