MR McCUTCHAN AND DR KEATING.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 1042, 4 June 1883, Page 2

MR McCUTCHAN AND DR KEATING.

TO the editor Sir, —As Dr Keating has been allowed scope in your paper to make grave charges against my character, I request space to clear myself. To, be brief, he implies that lam a rogue ; he directly calls me an informer ; and he states that the action taken by Sergeantmajor Goodall was at my instigation, and the result of spite at a refusal on his part to lend C. H. McCutchan £IOO. Taking these charges seriatim— Ist. Roguery is imputed to me since I remitted five guineas, without prejudice, as payment of his bill for six guineas, believing this sum to he ample for a consultation which was valueless, as my recovery was owing to treatment opposed to his advice. As to the second charge, Mr Goodall swore that I did not inform, and this was quite true. Dr Keating’s communication was of such a scurrilous nature that I consulted the sergeant-major as to redress ; and he, having read the letter, asked to see the receipt, which thus came into his possession. The third charge of spitefulness has now, of coarse, no foundation; but, supposing that I had applied for a loan, spite could not exist, for although Dr Keating was prosecuted subsequent to the 30ih March, Mr Goodall had possessed himself of the facts upon which he based his prosecution prior to that date. So much for JDr Keating’s random and. untruthful assertions. In conclusion, I think it, will be conceded that when the average medical practitioner’s diagnosis of a critical case leads to a course of treatment which, if persisted in, would speedily result in the dissolution of his patient, public opinion acquits him of blame, since he has acted as his judgment dictated ; but for the individual who would inflict moral injury, by seeking groundlessly to attach the terms rogue, informer, malice-bearer to a fellowman, public opinion can entertain no other feelings than those of reproach, contumely and opprobrium.—l am, &c., Charles H-. McCutchan. Hawera, May 31.