A private letter addressed to the gentlemen of the Royal College of Surgeons [of Edinburgh] / by a fellow member.

Date:
1798
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A private letter addressed to the gentlemen of the Royal College of Surgeons [of Edinburgh] / by a fellow member. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/20 (page 6)
    I make it my duty to fpeakthus plainly my fenie of wliat I have lee^, and of the tendency of it; for this fyllem has grown into fuch a flagrant enormity, that now the College of Surgeons has degenerated into a fet of politicians, not of the moll exalted rank ; and every fucceeding abufe has * Its particular end, and every movement explains what is defigned. I think almoft a man might for- fake his profeffion, and flill retain influence enough to flruggle againfl a whole fet of young men zealous and earnefl to do well! ! ! No one among us can be ignorant from what motives it is that men have fought to be placed in the chair of the Royal College of Surgeons. Their abilities to fulfil an honourable charge their defire to acquit themfelves well;—their refpedtability in their profeflion -their long hand- ing, or repute, never enter into their own minds ;—-no anxieties of this kind trouble the eledlors or the eledfed ; it is to procure an office that they are eledled; and, when they are eledled, their objedf is almoft enfiired. For thofe who need or defire fuch appointments, he muft be an ill hearted man who does not feel fome concern and fympathy, according to his degree of connedtion and intimacy ; but he ftiould feel himfelf infinitely degraded in ftiowing his friendfhip in this way, X-et us choke up this thoroughfare to politics through facred ground ; for while objedls fo tempting are in view, men will not be reftrained. It is eafy to perceive how the beft and moft induftrious of our profeffion may be feduced by this rage like gaming, which abforbs all other thought, and difdains no means of acquiring its objedf. Often, in the entering into the world, a young perfon is like one “ ftruggling for life among the waters,’’ and feels thofe labours and hardfhips, thofe difappointments and neceffities, which drive a thinking man almoft to defpair; without blame he is cafily feduced from his profeffion ; he is anxious to make provifion for thofe depending on him the eafieft and fliorteft way, and is induced to go after expedlations far different from thofe which animated him in the firft proud outfet of life, when he thought he had made choice of that pro- feffion in which he could delight to work his way to a refpedlable ftation with pleafant labour. The man who does this may be pitied, but cannot be blamed. fShould a private individual fee the companion of bis early days abandon his profeffion, and break all thofe expedlations which made a part, as it v/ere, of their mutual friendfhip, and make himfelf wretchedly dependent on chances which no man can eontroul, and the flave of others, what would he feel ? Could he approve of this ? Would he not be fenfible that his friend was loft to himfelf and to the world ? And if a private friend fhould thus lament a man of abilities in his profeffion abandoning himfelf to fucli objeds, ftiould a College encourage this temper, or tempt its Members by bribes, or fuifer them to abandon or negledl their profeffion, which it is the very eflence of the inftitutlon to fupport ? When once fuch motives and objects generally prevail, and are confidered as the direeft; or indlre6l motive of every connection among our fellow Members, they abforb every honeft or induftrious thought in the vortex of jealous and uneafy paffions; and the bufinefs of the College, its offices, its public meetings, its annual elections, are all turned to this one point. A man ftiall pretend to folicit the chair of the Royal College of Surgeons from the moft honourable motives—fliall cheat his fellow Members with promifes of reform^—and yet fliall ne- gleCI all thofe meafures which might put fcience in motion, enfure improvement, raife the Society from its prefent meannefs, and give to each individual Member his ffiare of reputation—ftiall think of nothing but how to ftick up, in] the placekwhich he muft appear to leave, an image which will move when he draws the ftrings—of the pretty puppet! Thus it is that our diftionour is perpetuated; that the Prefident of the Royal College, and,