A Ward in the Middlesex Hospital, Cancer Wing.
Photograph by Elliott & Fry, 55, Baker Street, W.
PREFACE
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.
The hospital is open to anybody who chooses to seek help and refuge there, free of all charge and cost. Amongst the honorary staff—those who give their services for nothing—are some of the first physicians and surgeons in London.
In this connection attention may be called to what Mr. Kipling says of people who “cadge round the hospitals.” There must be some abuse by people who can well afford to pay their own doctors, and for whom the benefits of free hospitals were never intended. Such abuse is demoralising to themselves and adds obvious difficulties to the career of the private practitioner. This is one of those cases where it is not easy to reconcile the letter with the spirit: on the one hand, there is risk of withholding what is avowedly offered; on the other, of countenancing an admitted evil. It need only be said that the Board of Management do not ignore the problem which confronts them.