The formation and early days of the St Andrew's Ambulance Association / by Sir George Thos. Beatson, surgeon to the Western Infirmary, Glasgow.

  • Beatson, George Thomas, Sir.
Date:
[1910]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The formation and early days of the St Andrew's Ambulance Association / by Sir George Thos. Beatson, surgeon to the Western Infirmary, Glasgow. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    these I have also preserved. In the Glasgow Herald for 20th April, 1882, a full description of this new wagon wTas given, and it seems to have been quite an up-to-date vehicle. I well remember its first appearance on the streets of Glasgow, and the notice it attracted, for it was undoubtedly driven furiously. The secretary did not believe in keeping one’s light under a bushel, and he saw in this wagon great possibilities in the way of making the Association known. As we are all aware, there is a popular idea that the stock in trade of every com¬ mencing medical practitioner includes a small boy with an elastic conscience, whose chief duty it is, in addition to his domestic work, to call his master out of church, lecture-rooms,, theatres, or any public gathering he may be attending. The secretary realised that the wagon could play the small boy’s part, and at all times of the day it could be seen careering through our streets on imaginary journeys at a break-neck speed, the secretary himself not infrequently accompanying it, seated beside the driver or standing up on the footboard, gesticulating wildly, and blowing a shrill-sounding whistle. I hope Colonel Barnes will not think his office lias been shorn of any of its importance seeing that we no longer demand these services from him. This sort of thing, however, may be overdone, even in the case of the medical boy, as a budding medico once found out. He had instructed the boy to come to the theatre and say he was wanted, impressing on him that he was to clearly indicate that it was a serious case he was summoning him to. He was not, however, quite prepared for the announcement made by the manager of the theatre from the footlights, that if Dr. So-and-So was present he was wanted immediately to a very urgent case, as the gentleman he had prescribed for in the morning had been taking fits ever since ! In the same way with our wagon. Its per¬ formances on the public thoroughfares became a matter of notoriety and got on the public nerves, wdiile the Fire Brigade felt that it was being quite snuffed out, the result being that a less demonstrative attitude was taken up. The appointment of the Executive Committee in June proved a turning-point in the career of the Association. Upon that Executive were business men, and they insisted on the affairs of the Association being conducted methodically and on business lines. At the different meetings held it was quite apparent that this was not the case, and without going into details it was found necessary to make changes in the manage¬ ment, and on 13th November, 1882,at a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Association, Mr. W. M. Cunningham, of the