The story of the Middlesex Hospital Medical School : written at the request of the Council of the Medical School on the occasion of the centenary / by H. Campbell Thomson.

  • Thomson, H. Campbell (Herbert Campbell), 1870-1940.
Date:
[1935]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The story of the Middlesex Hospital Medical School : written at the request of the Council of the Medical School on the occasion of the centenary / by H. Campbell Thomson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    34/252 (page 12)
    RULES FOR HOUSE PUPILS candidates must have served a regular apprenticeship to a surgeon for five years. They were then examined by the Surgeon of the House, and if approved, nominated to the Weekly Board for appointment. House-pupils were thus the forerunners of the house surgeons of later date, and the procedure of selection for the posts was not far different in principle from that practised to-day. In 1761 a code of rules for house-pupils and another for dressers and other pupils was drawn up and approved by the Weekly Board at a Quarterly Court. For the House- Pupil, the rules, as cited by Wilson, include the following : He must not absent himself from the business of the Hospital at the same time as the apothecary. He must supervise the work of the apprentices and pupils in the surgery ; he must report any incident of swearing or other misbehaviour to the first surgeon who next comes to the Hospital ; in default of which the whole blame shall lie at his door and leave him open to be censured or even expelled as the Board shall think proper. He must attend constantly at the dressing of the patients and carry pen, ink and paper to minute down all messages to the physicians or instructions relating to the patients. He is never to reduce any fracture or perform any operation of consequence. He must pursue strictly all directions given him by the physicians and surgeons and must take care to see the pupils and apprentices dress the patients by one o’clock. The time limit for holding the appointment to be not more than a year and a half. For the dressers and other pupils the rules preclude apprentices or pupils from entering the women’s wards at any time except that laid down for dressing the patients ; nor must they enter the apothecary’s shop or laboratory on any account whatever. No apprentice or pupil is to stay in the Hospital after the business of the day is finished. During the time they are in the Hospital, there must be no swearing or noise made, or any kind of indecency committed ; nor must the medicines, etc., of the Hospital be wasted or embezzled ; all such offences to be reported by the House-Pupil and to render the offender liable to be suspended or expelled at the discretion of the Board. The House-Pupil for the year 1761 was Mr. James Chafy, who afterwards became one of the Surgeons to the Hospital. This was the first instance of one who had been a House-Pupil being appointed to the Honorary Staff.