Letter from Dr. Hacket to Dr. Johnson, respecting Dr. Stevens' publication.

  • Hacket, W.
Date:
[1832]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Letter from Dr. Hacket to Dr. Johnson, respecting Dr. Stevens' publication. 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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    LETTER FROM DR. HACKET TO DR. JOHNSON, RESPECTING DR. STEVENS’ PUBLICATION. Sir, I shall once more trouble you, in consequence of Dr. Stevens’s reply to my statement, published by you ; and ere I proceed to that subject, I must first express my surprise at the even more than insinuation he expresses of a combination entered into between yourself, some others, and me, against him—but there is a hardihood of asser- tion, a real “ Corinthian” effrontery about this gentleman, rarely to be met with in the common walks of life; but which, when found amongst those who, by profession or situation, rank as gentlemen, calls forth, according to circumstances, either surprise or indignation, or possibly both. It is not necessary for me to declare to you, but it becomes necessary from so foul an insinuation, to say, that you are totally and entirely unknown to me, except in your public professional character; and that no communication directly or indirectly ever passed between us until I addressed to you the paper for publication which you w»ere good enough to give to the public. The natural disgust arising in a candid and ingenu- ous mind from a plain statement of facts upsetting the tenets of a most vain and pre- sumptuous man has, it seems, been sufficient to call forth his ire and wrath against you—this you will know how to appreciate, recollecting that the abuse of some people is perhaps the greatest praise that any individual can receive. I am not personally ac- quainted with Dr. Stevens, nor is it now possible I ever shall be; nevertheless he has depicted himself in such glowing colours that I now know him perfectly well, and know too how to estimate his full value,—his candor and fairness are equally appreciated, since my statement, by the generality of practitioners throughout the West Indies, as by myself. In looking over the reply offered to the public, I feel, I confess, a mingled sensation of pity, derision, nay, perhaps I might add, contempt for the exhibition of the unbridled arrogance and presumption displayed therein, and the want of taste and gentlemanly feel- ing depicted throughout the whole, from first to last; but checking all such sensations, and coming to particulars, the following seems the claim set up by Dr. Stevens on his own behalf, divested of all that embellishment or special pleading, so distinguishable throughout, and the consequent accusation contained therein against us. First:—He insists that we, the medical officers of the garrison of Trinidad, are solely indebted to him for the success we obtained in the treatment of fever there, because we had a great mortality previous to his visit in the middle or latter end of August, 1823 ; which mortality, he insists, ceased from “ the moment ” of his arrival : having it seems pointed out to Mr. Greatrex the errors of the previous practice followed, recommending in lieu thereof a combination of muriate of soda and nitrate of potash to replenish the colouring and saline properties of the blood; to the former of which, in common with “the waters of the deep” it owes its preservation, but which becomes either exhausted in the course of fever, thereby causing its dissolution, and consequent death of the indi- vidual ; or is, in point of fact, the only and real cause of disease or death ; and which re- commendation, from our own shewing, was not only complied with, but generally adopted. A