Bath General Hospital Short vindication of the proceedings of the Governors Bath 1744
[Bath General Hospital.] A short vindication of the proceedings of the Governors of the General Hospital at Bath, in relation to Mr. Archibald Cleland, late surgeon to the said hospital; wherein the several facts misrepresented in a pamphlet, call'd, An Appeal to the Publick, by Mr. Cleland, are fairly stated. To which is prefix'd, a short narrative of the proceedings. By the Governors of the hospital, who voted for Mr. Cleland's dismission. Bath: printed by James Leake; and sold by A. Dodd (London), 1744. (4)18, 34 pp. 8vo, disbound. First edition. A remarkable medical dispute. Two female patients at the Bath General Hospital, one suffering from hysterical fits, the other from leprosy, had accused Cleland of making indecent and unnecessary vaginal examinations. A quasi-legal investigation ensued, as a result of which Cleland was also accused of malpractice, having purportedly wrongly diagnosed the ailment of another female patient. The hospital board eventually voted for Cleland's dismissal; one of the key figures involved was Ralph Allen, the friend of Pope and Fielding, and one of Bath's leading citizens (he was then serving as mayor). Cleland then published a pamphlet in his own defence, but we have been unable to locate a copy of it (though much of the text is reprinted here); he also published a reply to the present pamphlet, later in the year. Cleland also served for a time as a surgeon in the army; the same year as this unfortunate episode occurred, he printed in Philosophical Trasactions a description of surgical implements required for the catheterization of the Eustachian tube by way of the nose, a procedure he had himself devised (cf. Garrison-Morton 3355). A fine copy of a very rare title, complete with the half-title; the ESTC (on-line, 05/01) lists five copies (L, C, O, TAUa, National Trust). Not in NLM.
£750
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