A MISREPRESENTATION EXPOSED
RobtB. Upton, W.H. Flint
1848
The Lancet
certain that you must be unwilling to have it intruded upon your readers. However, in justice to myself, I find it necessary to contradict, in the most absolute terms, several of their I statements. First. It is not true that I made any such statement to Mr. Prior as alleged by them. I never, either to that gentleman or to any other person, intimated my concurrence in their views with regard to the medical officers of the union, or the line of conduct which in my judgment was I proper to be
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... ued by the profession in the circumstances ' , , affecting the union. Secondly. They assert that my statement to the effect that I resigned in 1844 because my I , , assistants were not allowed to attend my cases is " nonsense," as I at that time had none, but only one articled pupil. I ' , repeat that I had then two efficient assistants-viz., Messrs. Stephenson and Harrison, both of whom were perfectly able, ' , from professional education and experience, to assist in medical and surgical practice, although not qualified. Thirdly. Messrs. Braddon and White state that " Mr. Braddon did not oppose Mr. Marsh when he might have done so with success," at the expiration of the probationary period of six months, for which I had been elected for the fourth district. To this I have to state that it is "nonsense" indeed, inasmuch as there was in reality no election at all. There was even no declaration of vacancy, the best proof of which is the fact that no advertisement appeared in the newspapers, as always is the case when an election takes place; and I was reappointed for twelve months, as a matter of course. I also repeat that I am as sensible as any gentleman in the profession of the unworthy treatment too often experienced by its members who have the misfortune to be poor-law medical officers, of which I myself have been a devoted victim, though, on this occasion, I have been placed by circumstances in the position of opposing two gentlemen, who have at the eleventh hour, as it were, brought themselves prominently before the public as sticklers for the honour of the profession. I have not sought this position. Messrs. Braddon and White have in a very uncalled-for manner compelled me to repel a series of calumnious slanders, in venting which it appears to me that they have much less consulted the interest and honour of the profession than the gratification of private pique.-I remain, Sir, your obliged servant,
doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(02)70856-8
fatcat:gyvz5vdtnvehpazw57jowvcqna