An account of the circumstances attending the imprisonment and death of the late William Millard, formerly superintendent of the Theatre of Anatomy of St. Thomas's Hospital, Southwark.

Date:
1825
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An account of the circumstances attending the imprisonment and death of the late William Millard, formerly superintendent of the Theatre of Anatomy of St. Thomas's Hospital, Southwark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    already adverted to the practice of exacting fees of admis- sion from patientS;, all of whom, previous to their being received into the hospital, are called on to declare in the petition which they present, that they are in low circumstances and destiiute of friends, whereby to obtain a cure. An equally strange, and we will venture tously at the steward's office, in wl.ich their name, age, and complainl, are to be inserted. The petition nais thus :— ' To the Worshipful President, Treasurer, and Governors of ' St. Thomas's Hospital, Sonthtvark. * The humble Petition of aged Sheweth, ' That your Petitioner is afflicted with and being * IN LOW CIRCUMSTANCES, AND DESTITUTE OF FRIENDS, whercby tO ' obtain a Cure, most humbly desires your Worships would be pleased to * admit h into the said Hospital, .and, as in duty bound, h will * ever pray.' Recommended by ^ f.^^^^^^^, , The time of admitting Patients is at ten o'clock on Thursday morning precisely. Admission Fees, viz.— ■ Clean Patient, .. 3s. 6d. ] Foul Do 10s. Cd. The patients are examined in rooms appointed for that purpose by the physician or surgeon of the week, under whose care they are to be placed, and if reported proper objects for relief they are requested to produce a respectable guarantee as a security for their removal when cured, or THEIR BURIAL tvhen they die in the Hospital, or deposit the sum of one guinea to defray the expense of the latter, which deposit is returned when they leave the Hospital, cured or relieved, after which they are sent to their respective wards for their reception, &c. page 225. According to the Official Account presented by the governor, in 1819, to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen (see page 244 of the Historical Account), the number of patients was 10,304, of which 2911 were in-patients. Supposing the in-patients alone to pay admission tiees, which, however, is not stated, and that a third of them pay half-a-guinea, and the remainder three shillings and sixpence each, on their admission, the following estimate will give some idea of the sums which are annually extracted from the poor miserable objects (they are thus designated in the Official Account from which these statements are taken) who apply for relief at St. Thomas's Hospital. £. s. d. 2000 Patients, 3s. 6d. each, 350 0 0 911 Do. 10s. 6d. each, 478 5 6 £ 828 5 6 perann. Thus it appears that the poor miserable objects who become patients of St. Tliomas's Hospital, contribute upwards of .£800. per annum to the^ funds of the Institution, and it is out of funds thus augmented tliat the' Governors of this Hospital grant money (if we are to believe the author of the work above referred to) to build museums, anatomical theatres, and dissecting rooms. But, perhaps, the reader will say, these costly edifices contribute in some way or other to the advantage of the patients! Not one iota more than they do to any other class of the community.— Then for what purpose do these anatomical theatres and dissecting rooms serve ? Solely to put money into the pockets of the lecturers, men, be