A memoir of John Deakin Heaton, M. D., of Leeds.

  • Reid, T. Wemyss (Thomas Wemyss), 1842-1905.
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A memoir of John Deakin Heaton, M. D., of Leeds. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    Loeds. It liad boon roiiiidccl l)y public su])sfri])f,ioii in 1802, for the purpose ol receiving patients .sufleririg from contagious and infectious fevers. Down to the date of its estal)Hsliment there was no provision wortliy of the name for the poor wlio fell victims to one or other of the many loathsome scourges of humanity. The fever palicnt remained where he was, in the damp anrl noisome cellar or garret, suri-ouuded by a closely packed crew of his fellow-poor. It is not wonderful that death sj)read rapidly in a town like Leeds when once a case of infectious fever had declared it.self. But at last the House of Recovery was estal)lished, and proof was afforded that, even eighty years ago, in the dark ages of sanitary science, Leeds could boast of some inhabitants so far enlightened as to their duty to their fellows as to be capable of devising and founding an institution of this character. There will be much more to be said of the House of Recovery in the course of this narrative; and the reader will see at what a cost, not of money but of health and life, it was carried on by the devoted men who were connected with it. But no one can doubt that, ever since its establishment in 1802, it has been of the greatest benefit to the inhabitants of the town. There was yet one other charitable institution of Leeds in the olden days that deserves notice, because it belonged to an order of charities by no means common in those days. The people of Leeds, as the