The late inquest at Putney: a commentary on the attempted vindication of John Rose Cormack, M.D., Edin. : with an appendix, containing important documents and editorial articles relating to the above inquiry / by John Farmer.

  • Farmer, John.
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The late inquest at Putney: a commentary on the attempted vindication of John Rose Cormack, M.D., Edin. : with an appendix, containing important documents and editorial articles relating to the above inquiry / by John Farmer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    In reference to this part of the transaction, if may be asked, what has the medical juror done, to deserve all the obloquy that has been cast upon him ? This question has now to be answered; a id in answering it, I shall afford my readers a few more examples of that unique system of “ revision ” which Dr. Cormack has, for reasons best known to himself, adopted in the compilation of his boasted unabridged and most accurate pamphlet. The simple facts are these. On the morning after the close of the inquiry in the coroner’s court, there appeared in the Morning Post a most incorrect and scandalous report of the proceedings, in which the resident medical practitioners were placed in a position which they were by no means desirous of continuing to occupy. Amongst the unfounded statements in this report was one attributing the “ grossest mismanagement of the case” to Dr. Wane and Mr. 8hillito, two gentlemen, it should be borne in mind, whose advice had only been sought by Dr. Cormack at a period when the patient appeared to be on the point of death. “ Virulent cholera” was also stated to have manifested itself in the person of the deceased young lady, and her death was, from some alleged evidence of Dr. Wane, ascribed solely to that most loathsome and most dreaded of all diseases. It appeared to be quite convenient, and even pleasing to Dr. Cor- mack, to have two respectable parties to share the onus of this unfor- tunate case with him ; and so upon being taxed with not having had the generosity to attempt to remove the imputations resting upon his professional brethren, he excuses himself by stating, that he had con- sidered the paragraph in question as far too absurd to require the least notice at his hands ! The gentlemen, however, whose characters had been aspersed, thought differently; and it was because Dr. Cormack did not appear to be impressed with a proper sense of his duty towTards his medical neighbours, that Mr. Whiteman undertook, with the knowledge and full approval of Dr. Wane and Mr. Shillito, to per- form that duty for him. This, then, is the 44 head and front” of the medical juror’s offending—the whole extent, indeed, of his alleged delinquency ! The following is the incorrect report alluded to from the Morning Post, July 15th, 1847:— SUSPECTED CASE OF CHOLERA AT PUTNEY. Yesterday, Mr. William Carter held an inquest at the Queen’s Head Inn, Putney, on view of the body of a young lady, named Sophia Dallett, whose death had taken place a few days previously. The excitement in Putney and its neighbourhood had been very great, rumours of a very unpleasant character having for some days past been circulated, both with reference to the medical gentlemen engaged, and the deceased, whose parents hold a highly respectable position in the town. Amongst the accusations broadly made il ' both in the inquest-room and out of doors, was one that the grossest mismanagement had been exhibited by the medical gentlemen who attended the deceased lady, and another rumour prevailed that the young lady had died from the effects of a virulent I in attack of cholera. The inquiry excited much interest, the interest being promoted • I V by the resident surgeons of the neighbourhood, who, it appeared, had determined to I *’n use their best influence to make it 4 a great medical case.’ Dr. Willis, Dr Shillito, Dr. Wane, Dr. Freeman, and other eminent physicians, were present. Dr. Bushell applied to watch the case on behalf of the relatives of I ^ the deceased. Mr. Martin, barrister-at-law, was foreman of the jury.