Restricted accessOtherFirst published online 2003-11
“Let Right Be Done”: Unprofessional Conduct,Reputations and Injustices,and Their Effect on the Life of the Surgeon James Fitzjames Fraser West (1833–1883)
Unprofessional behaviour was still common when James Fitzjames Fraser West first qualified in 1854. The paper covers the ugly dispute that occurred in 1857, when West was appointed honorary surgeon at Queen's Hospital in Birmingham. West's reputation did not suffer any long-term harm, however, and he went to his grave a much-respected man.
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References
1.
WaddingtonI. The Medical Profession in the Industrial Revolution. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1984: p. 19.
2.
PetersonMJThe Medical Profession in Mid-Victorian London. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1978: p. 128.
3.
Testimonials to Mr J F West and testimonials to Mr J S Gamgee, Queen's Hospital, Birmingham, held at Birmingham Central Library, D/1 L46.11.
4.
Cox was a founder of both the medical school, which at the time of the election was known as Queen's College, and the hospital affiliated with it, Queen's Hospital.
5.
ThompsonR. D'ArcyThe Remarkable Gamgees. A Story of Achievement. Edinburgh: Ramsey Head Press, 1974: p. 88.
6.
WestJFF Papers in the private archive of the present author, who is the stepdaughter of the late Constance Margery Fryer (née West) and who has been fortunate to inherit the archive material of her grandfather, James Fitzjames Fraser West.
7.
There were 64 students at Queen's College in 1857. The revelations and irregularities exposed as a result of the disputed election caused the numbers to fall to 35 in 1859.
8.
Letter. Lancet, 28 November 1857: 564.
9.
Thomas Pretious Heslop (1823–1885); Alexander Fleming (died 1875); George Beauchamp Knowles (c. 1790–1866). Knowles' resignation led to West's appointment.
10.
Gamgee's statement, entitled “Address to Lord Brougham”, amounts to some 22 sides of print, while that of the professors, “Statement of the Professors, and other Documents”, is just over 27 sides in length. Documents held at Birmingham Central Library, D/1 Part 2.
11.
Birmingham Daily Post, 9 December 1857.
12.
The Reverend Dr John Cale Miller (1814–1880). Dr Miller deserves to be remembered for his contribution to hospital funding through “Hospital Sunday”, a scheme he devised for collecting donations from the town's churches on specified Sundays. It proved so successful that the idea spread to other parts of the country and even to America.
13.
At that time, John Ratcliff.
14.
Both men supported West in the election dispute.
15.
WestJFF (op. cit. ref. 6).
16.
ThompsonR D'Arcy (op. cit. ref. 5).
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ThompsonR D'Arcy (op. cit. ref. 5) p. 88.
18.
Testimonials to Mr J F West (op. cit. ref. 3): p. 34. Reverend W Hunt was chaplain and headmaster at Bancroft's Hospital and chaplain at Queen's Hospital.
19.
Testimonials to Mr J F West (op. cit. ref. 3): pp. 44–5.
20.
Testimonials to Mr J F West (op. cit. ref. 3): p. 46.
21.
Testimonials to Mr J F West (op. cit. ref. 3): pp. 46–7.
22.
Testimonials to Mr J F West (op. cit. ref. 3): pp. 50–1.
23.
Testimonials to Mr J F West (op. cit. ref. 3): p. 50. A man “who finds rest only when searching for the truth”. Walter Walshe was Professor of the Principle and Practice of Medicine and of Clinical Medicine in University College and Physician to University College Hospital, London.
24.
Testimonials to Mr J F West (op. cit. ref. 3): p. 61. Andrew Clark was Assistant Physician and Lecturer on Pathological Histology, London Hospital, and Assistant Physician, London Hospital for Diseases of the Chest, etc.
25.
Testimonials to Mr J F West (op. cit. ref. 3): p. 53.
26.
Testimonials to Mr J F West (op. cit. ref. 3): p. 47. This was before Lister (later Lord Lister) devised his antiseptic techniques for the elimination of wound infection.
27.
GamgeeJS (op. cit. ref. 10).
28.
GamgeeJS (op. cit. ref. 10): p. 13.
29.
GamgeeJS (op. cit. ref. 10): p. 14.
30.
(Henry) Lakin and (James William) Moore were two of the other candidates. The other three were Joseph Sampson Gamgee, Furneaux Jordan and Benjamin Hunt.
31.
GamgeeJS (op. cit. ref. 10): p. 19.
32.
Birmingham Journal, 14 November 1857.
33.
Statement of the professors (op. cit. ref. 10).
34.
Statement of the professors (op. cit. ref. 10). p. 15.
35.
The death of Dr Heslop. Birmingham Post, 19 June 1885.
36.
WestJFFNotes of a case of fibro-cystic tumour, or hydrocele of the neck. Birmingham Medical Review1875: 107.
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Birmingham Daily Post, 30 May 1883.
38.
WestJFF (op. cit. ref. 6).
39.
BaileyHBishopWJNotable Names in Medicine and Surgery (3rd edn). London: H K Lewis, 1959.
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WestJFFOn some points of contrast between French and English surgery. Birmingham Medical Review1873: 35.
41.
SmithJPNotes from the tent hospitals of the Franco-German War. Birmingham Medical Review1873: 44–5.
42.
The first of dozens is dated 1857: WestJFF. Case of asphyxia complicated with concussion, and followed by stupor, successfully treated by the Marshall Hall method of artificial respiration. Lancet1857: 530–1.
43.
GoodmanGMObservations on Continental hospitals and practice as described by the English surgeon James Fitzjames Fraser West (1833–1883). Journal of Medical Biography2004 (in press).
44.
Egbastonia, July 1883: 97–8.
45.
WestJFF (op. cit. ref. 6).
46.
Dr Gabriel Jean Marie de Lys was the son of a French aristocrat who fled the revolution and worked as a physician at Birmingham's General Hospital between 1815 and 1831. De Lys founded the Royal Institution for the Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Children, in Church Road, Edgbaston, in 1812 (now renamed, the Princess Royal Centre of the National Deaf-Blind and Rubella Association). He was born in St Malo, Brittany, in 1784 and died in 1831.
47.
BarlingSGMackeyLGJMorrisonJTJThe History of the Birmingham School of Medicine 1825–1925. A special number of the Birmingham Medical Review, December 1925: 23–4.
48.
Report entitled Second Cause. The College Quarrels. Document held at Birmingham Central Library, Birmingham Miscellaneous 1866, G/I. Dr G V Blunt is reported here to have detailed his charges against Cox in a 90-page contribution to a damning indictment compiled by Mr F O Martin, Her Majesty's Inspector of Charities (see note 50).
49.
Letter dated 4 October 1859 included in a report entitled First Cause. The Mismanagement of the College Affairs. Document held at Birmingham Central Library, Birmingham Miscellaneous G/1 15429.
50.
MartinFOMr, Her Majesty's Inspector of Charities, conducted an investigation into the condition and management of Queen's College, which resulted in the Charity Commissioners' report. The Charity Commissioners certified the case to the Attorney General on 3 January 1865. This in turn resulted in the Queen's College, Birmingham Act 1867 and the effective re-foundation of the College.
51.
The Queen's College Enquiry Address: pp. 3–26. Document held at Birmingham Central Library, D/1 62736.
52.
ThompsonR D'Arcy (op. cit. ref. 5): p. 88.
53.
A printed volume (4 cm thick) of vindictive letters and statements produced by him can be found in Birmingham Central Library, D/1 L46.21.
54.
The Reverend James Prince Lee went on to become Bishop of Manchester.
55.
Edgbastonia, no. 27, July 1883: 97–9.
56.
Birmingham Medical Review1883;14:47.
57.
Obituary. British Medical Journal1883;i:1097.
58.
Obituary. Lancet1883;i:1024.
59.
Letter in the private archive of the present author.
60.
Further reading.
61.
BarlingSGMackeyLGJMorrisonJTJThe History of the Birmingham School of Medicine 1825–1925. A special number of the Birmingham Medical Review, December 1925.
62.
BarnesS. The Birmingham Hospitals Centre. Birmingham: Stanford and Mann, 1952.
63.
ThompsonR D'Arcy. The Remarkable Gamgees. A Story of Achievement. Edinburgh: Ramsey Head Press, 1974.
64.
MorrisonJTJWilliam Sands Cox and the Birminglmm Medical School. Birmingham: Cornish Brothers, 1926.
