Doctors / An Address delivered to the Students of the Medical School of the Middlesex Hospital, 1st October, 1908

DOCTORS
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Photograph by Reginald Haines, 4, Southampton Row, W.C.
An Address delivered to the Students of the Medical School of the Middlesex Hospital, 1st October, 1908 BY RUDYARD KIPLING WITH A PREFACE Sold for the benefit of the Middlesex Hospital MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON 1908 Richard Clay and Sons, Limited, BREAD STREET HILL, E.C., AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.
Patrons: H.M. THE KING H.M. QUEEN ALEXANDRA President: H.G. the Duke of Northumberland, K.G. Chairman of the Board of Management : Major-General Lord Cheylesmore, C.V.O. Deputy-Chairman : H.S.H. Prince Francis of Teck, G.C.V.O., D.S.O. Treasurers : G. J. Marjoribanks, Esq. Hon. Walter Rothschild, M.P. C. H. Burnand, Esq. Secretary-Superintendent : F. Clare Melhado, Esq.
A Ward in the Middlesex Hospital, Cancer Wing.
Photograph by Elliott & Fry, 55, Baker Street, W.

On October 1st, 1908, Mr. Rudyard Kipling was kind enough to distribute the prizes at the opening of the new session of the Medical School of the Middlesex Hospital. The address which he then delivered was deemed by those who heard it so admirable, both in form and substance, that there arose a desire to preserve it.
The object of this little book is to satisfy that wish. It has been suggested that its publication might be appreciated by others, who were neither concerned with the particular occasion, nor are personally connected with the medical profession. This being so, there is no need for an elaborate preface. Readers would derive no added pleasure from a detailed history of the hospital: Mr. Kipling’s speech requires no elucidation.
Nevertheless it will do no harm to explain, for the benefit of some, why and where Mr. Kipling spoke. The Middlesex Hospital, in Mortimer Street, near Oxford Street, was founded in 1745. It then contained 24 beds. In 1907 the average daily number of occupied beds was 269: the total number of patients relieved in the out-patient department was 47,597. These figures will suggest the magnitude and scope of the work accomplished.