A letter to the right honourable and honourable the directors of Greenwich Hospital, containing an exposure of the measures resorted to by the medical officers of the London Eye Infirmary, for the purpose of retarding the adoption and execution of plans for the extermination of the Egyptian ophthalmia, from the army and from the kingdom / submitted for the approval of government by Sir William Adams.

  • Adams, William, Sir, 1783-1827.
Date:
1817
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A letter to the right honourable and honourable the directors of Greenwich Hospital, containing an exposure of the measures resorted to by the medical officers of the London Eye Infirmary, for the purpose of retarding the adoption and execution of plans for the extermination of the Egyptian ophthalmia, from the army and from the kingdom / submitted for the approval of government by Sir William Adams. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    soldiers under your treatment for the ophlhalmia, but particularly Frost, from whom ihey heard related the circumstances of his discharge and subsequent cure, who also read and wrote before ilicm. General Thewles expressed himself to me, when alone, in the highest degree satisfied with the proofs of your success, and urged the propriety of immediately comnianicafiug what he had seen to the Commander-in-Chief, as the oiihthalmia then existed to such an extent through- out tlie army. Ou my informing you this, and iiilin~.ating what I thought the best mode of proceeding, you positively declined making any communication to the Conunander-in-Chief, withoutjfirst consul mg your best friend, Mr. Saunders, wlio hadjirst pointed out to you the scat and nature of the disease. I then urged you to write to that genMeman without delay, which you did, and handed me his answer, wherein he disapproved of the iutended communication, at which I own I was astonished. You then said, the business must drop, as you would rather lose the chance of gaining 50G0/. tlian do any thing which Mr. Saunders might consider as ungrateful towards him, from whom you had received so much professional in- formation. I perfectly recollect lamenting to you, that so fatal a disease as the ophthalmia should be suffered to go on iu so great a degree unchecked in the a<rmy, because an individual thought it his interest to keep the mode of cure a secret for the time being. If any censure has at this distant period fallen uj-in you for acting according to my suggestions and advice to you ou that occasion, 1 am sorry for it. Nothing can be more evident, from the statement of facts which I have just made, than tffat I was warranted in acting as I did ou the score of humanity, and as being an officer of a charity in which these important cures had been effected. With respect to yourself, I can solemnly aver, that your conduct (as far as it has come within my knowledge) has been honourable and grateful to your deceased preceptor, and that you have uniformly attributed the merit of the dis- covery in question to him. At the same time, I cannot close my letter, without venturing an opinion, that no disinterested person can read the facts on each side without acknowledging that a great degree of credit is due to you, not only for your improvements on the late Mr. Saunders's discoveries, but for your inde- fatigable and gratuitous exertions, in so widely extending the benefits resulting from them to society. Believe me to be. Dear Sir, very truly your's, ROBERT RUSSELL, Treasurer to the Exeter Eye Infirmary. This letter requires no comments; it speaks for it- self. In compliance with Mr. Russell's suggestions, I did not delay in dispatching a letter to Mr. Saunders, after it had been favoured with the entire approbation of Mr. Johnston, an intimate friend of Mr. Saunders,