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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    impossible that any such observations as he states could have been made by him to Mr. Greatrex—because, in the first place, had such been actually made it would undoubtedly have been stated to me the following day, when Mr. Greatrex informed me of the learn- ed gentleman’s hypothesis of an acid in the blood ! He assuredly then would have in- formed me of those errors in our practice pointed so clearly out” to him, instead of telling me that Dr. Stevens approved, (notwithstanding all he now asserts to the con- trary) highly of our practice, and was struck with the similarity of it to his own, and which, by the bye, en passant, I would now have the learned Doctor to know, I consi- der no compliment; at all events, as regards the conversation, I can only say for my- self, these errors of practice, if they be errors of practice, (for the ipse dixit of Dr. Stevens now can have but little weight with practical men) were never stated to me :—again, I say, it was utterly impossible for him to have pointed out to Mr. Greatrex the errors of that practice which produced the previous mortality; for there was no record of it shewn to him ; this did not arise from design but from mere accident, for it so happened, that the registers of our practice shewn to him only embraced the period of Mr. Greatrex’s being in charge; he having joined the garrison but a few weeks before ' And it will be seen by the following extract from General Orders, that Mr. Greatrex had not been previously at Trinidad, and consequently had nothing whatever to do with the previous practice, the errors of which, though “ so clearly seen,” it seems by the intuitive talent and vivid imagination of Dr. Stevens, for he had no other data whatever to go on, could not therefore, I say, be pointed out to Mr. Greatrex, either as regarding the past or as im- mediately affecting himself ; and further, although the learned gentleman, with his ac- customed hardihood, asserts otherwise, yet I solemnly declare, with the exception of using his nostrum, and which I now regret I ever sanctioned being used, for how highly held in estimation will hereafter be stated, there was no deviation whatever in our prac- tice, though “ its errors had been so clearly pointed out” since first fixed and perma- nently established about the middle of July, 1828, to the remotest period of our con- tinuance at Trinidad, notwithstanding all Dr. Stevens asserts to the contrary, though absent himself some thousands of miles from its application. Head Quarters, Barbadoes, llth June, 1828. * * * * * ■ * * “ No. 7, Assistant-Surgeon Greatrex, of the Royal Regiment, will proceed from Barba- does by a similar conveyance to Trinidad.” Mr. Greatrex, in compliance with the above order, joined about the 24th of June; it will therefore be seen, he could not have been at Trinidad but a very short period previous to Dr. Stevens’ visit there, in the middle or latter end of August of the same year. Having now, I trust, fully and clearly shewn the fallacy, to give it the mildest term, of Dr. Stevens’s statement, as to the “ errors of practice, and his pointing them out,” I have next to remark on the assertion he makes, that the mortality of the Royal Regi- ment ceased “ from the moment of his arrival at Trinidad —this is a vain and empty boast, and exactly in keeping with the general highly coloured portrait Dr. Stevens so constantly indulges in of himself. It appears from the returns of the Royal Regiment, recently taken from the hospital books, and examined by me at St. Lucia, that the strength of the corps, rank and file, was about 350; that the admissions into hos- pital, (from December, 1827, the time of their arrival in Trinidad, to December, 1828) of remittent fever cases alone, amounted to 942 ; the deaths from the same 43 : from this it will appear, that every man in the regiment, within a year, averaged nearly three attacks of malignant fever ; consequently those ot the most weakly and broken down constitutions, from previous excess, died, whilst the surviving got every day more sea- soned or acclimated to the island, as usually happens to all corps ; and therefore it is that the subsequent attacks of fever come down every day more to the standaid of the milder form to be met with amongst the troops themselves, and very different from the intense and malignant form to be met with in first comers, or Europeans -.—but as to the details of the events of the memorable 1828 ; the admissions into hospital from the 20th of June to the 20th of September, the finale of the Quarter, and which was one of the most rife in sickness we had experienced, amounted to 258 cases of remittent fever ; the mortality amongst them was very great, amounting to twelve, exceeding by one