MEDICAL ASSOCIATION.

Evening Star, Issue 3283, 28 August 1873, Page 3

MEDICAL ASSOCIATION.

To the Editor. Sir, —A meeting of medical men was lately held at Mr Hocken’s with the view of forming a Medical Association in this Cify._ As their proceedings an: calculated, if not indeed intended, to injure the reputation and interest of individual members of the profession, perhaps you will allow me to draw the attention of the public to a few facts that have come to my knowledge. It appears lam to be excluded from this select society, for, said Mr Hoeken, “Dr Sorley is an unscrupulous man. He offered to cure a woman at Caversham, whom he knew to be dying «f consumption, for L4O, in order to rob her of her money ; and then he is most unscrupulous in pirating the cases of other medical men, and therefore he must neither be invited nor admitted into such a pure society as our?.” Perhaps Mr Hoeken may yet hear more of this in another place. Meanwhile I wish that portion of the public who may have heard of the slander about the robbery to know that it is a pure calumny —the mere invention of an enemy. The woman referred to called me in casually while 1 was attending a neighbor of hers some three years ago to ask my opinion on her case. After that I never saw her again, although she lived four months longer. Had she placed herself under my care, it is not impossible that her life might have been prolonged, for I have ample evidence to show that many patients in this City who had been pronounced incurable by certain high authorities here have recovered under my treatment. But she did not : 'here was no contract nor word of contract between us. In proof of this, I can refer to the present wife, who was an intimate friend of the family at the time. She stated only the other day that she never had heard of the alleged contract either from the deceased or the deceased’s husband, but did hear the report from parties outside a long time after her death. Here, then, is the whole case. On the ground of this base and baseless calumny, both he and Dr Hulme not only decline to meet me in consultation themselves, hut also instigate others to follow their example. Were there my truth in the story about the contract, 1 admit they would have some ground for taking objection to me, and I might be obliged with shame to hide ray diminished head, and gaze upwards in almost hopeless despair of ever reaching the lofty elevation on which these gentlemen have so self-complacently placed themselves. But 1 repeat there is not a vestige of truth in it, and it is circulated merely to justify to the public the attitude they hare almost all along assumed towards me. Perhaps I can suggest a better and truer explanation of their conduct, and with your permission 1 will do so.

Shortly after my arrival here, and before I had time to effect either much good or evil, a gentleman proposed to Drs Hulme and Eccles a consultation with mo on the case of his wife. They scouted the very idea; aud so, as the lady was getting worse and worse, they were dismissed, and I was called in. Under my care she began to rally and get better. War was instantly declared against me by those gentlemen ; one of them was polite enough to call my written opinion and prescription humbug, and myself a quack. Dr Hulme confidently asserted the lady would not live three months. Notwithstanding this consoling assurance, she has lived to have two children, and is at present quite well. The next case in which Dr Hulme refused to meet me was that of a man who was suffering from neuroma in one of his arms. I advised him to have that part of the nerve to which the neuromatous bodies were attached removed at once ; otherwise the arm would have to be amputated, with the prospect of a second opera tion, which would prove fatal. As Dr Hulme declined to meet me, he waited on the patient himself. From that time till his death the man was in the hands of the Philistines. After going the round of several of the doctors, he fell at last into the hands of Mr Hoeken, who at once told him that I had quite misunderstood the disease : that it w f as not neuroma at all, but a swelling of the lymphatus, and that he would have him all right by Christmas. Christmas came, but instead of being all right, the poor man lay writhing in agony, from which death, more friendly than his doctor, soon happily released him. My predictions were fulfilled to the very letter : his arm had to be amputated, a second operation was performed, which was followed by mortification and death. It is true that dead men tell no tales, except in such a case as occurred at the Hospi-al the other day, when a man who was sent into the deadhouse somewhat sooner than he ought, rose again at the dead of night,’and stalked forth, spreading terror and confusion among the scared inmates and officers. But although dead men tell no tales, there arc talcs which in certain circumstances ought to be told for them.

There are one or two doctors in this City who look upon themselves— no one knows why—as the shining ones of the earth—stars of the first magnitude—and imagine that they can look down on their prof' ssional brethren. For instance, a gentleman who had Just returned from Melbourne, whither he,had gone in quest of health, telegraphed for Dr Halley, of Tuapeka, to meet Mr Hocken. When Dr Halley arrived, the mighty metropolitan declined to meet him. It was beneath his dignity ! The gentleman had therefore to be content with me, an ignominy he afterwards admitted he had no occasion to regret I could give many such i nstanccs, but one more must suffice. Some time ago a gentleman met with an accident which dislocated his elbow and caused a fracture within the joint. Of course an injury of this character precludes the prospect of a thorough cure. Not satisfied with the appearance of his arm,. he showed it successively to Drs Hocken, Hulme, Burns, and Yates, He asked me to meet Mr Hocken at a certain t me and place, f agreed (as 1 had no objection to meet any of them). I went according to appointment, but Mr Hocken refused to meet me, but did not fail to inform the patient that his arm had been grossly mismanaged by me. However, though Mr Hocken would not meet me, Dr Yates did, and explained fully to the gentleman that from his own experience a cure could not be effected. Still Mr Hocken was not to bo baulked. He got a medical friend of his own to examine the injury, who after doing so, first looked very wise, then indignant, and finally exclaimed “ damn it.” This common but decidedly unprofessional expression appeared to be viewed by Mr Hocken as ample corroboration of his opinion ; though by all good and sensible men (such as an arbiter of piofessional etiquette ought to be) it will be regarded as the senseless utterance of an ignorant and vulgar man. .Such, sir, is the treatment which any practitioner who may attempt to establish himself here may expect at the hands of certain medical men in the City, If he has spirit enough to pursue an independent course and refuses to become a mere satellite of theirs. Such is the treatment to which I have been subjected for years, I have borne it quietly, treated it with the contempt which it deserves, and established myself in spite of them But when they try to form an exclusive association such as that inaugurated by Messrs Hocken, Hulme, and Co., it is time to speak out and expose their pro*

ceedings to the world. For what is this association but a conspiracy against those members of the profe- sion who may happen to he excluded? Iho public were very solemnly cautioned not very long ago again. l l circulating a report which was thought to reflect on the professional skill of certain doctors of position in the City; but some of the doctors themselves stand equally if not, inched, more in ne d of being cautioned against spreading false reports injuriously affecting the reputation of professional brethren of as long experience and as high standing as any of their maligners. For the honor of the profession, I am happy to say that such a course as they are at present pursuing is almost without parallel. I know of only one instance where a coterie of professional monopolists in a certain town in England banded themselves together to crush one or two rivals who were too successful in establishing themselves in the place. As a warning to the Dunedin monopolists, I may mention that their action was pronounced illegal and the originators visited with the punishment they so richly merited. —I am, & c ., Henry Sorley, M.D. Dunedin, August 26.

[Wo permit insertion of this letter with much reluctance, and merely from conviction that not only is it a question in which the public are interested, bub that by no other means can Dr Sorley assert his position, assuming his relationship to the profession to be what he represents. Of this we know nothing, and shall be glad to give publicity to any explanation tending to remove the idea that he and other practitioners are unjustly dea't with.— Kd. E. A'.]