From Rage and Hate

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 545, 24 December 1928, Page 16

From Rage and Hate

HOW ‘THE LANCET’ WAS BORN

Medical Journal’s Stormy History

HOW the private misfortunes and consequent exasperation of a practically unknown and very youthful doctor, over 100 years ago, resulted in the foundation of “The Lancet,” the now internationally known London medical journal, and how, after a stormy period of recrimination and hate, it was carried on by the founder’s sons and grandsons, is told by the present editor, Sir Squire Sprag’ge, in an article in “The New York Times.”

The “Lancet,” which entered its > 106th year two months ago, was born on Sunday, October 5, 1523, being isi anonymous editor’s house in Norfolk Street, Strand, London. Its present ; site, which it has held for about 90 - years (namely, 423, Strand, and 1 Bed- [ ford Street, London, WC), is distant " but a few yards from the scene of the 1 accouchment. Much of that diningroom furniture is still used in the general editorial room and in the private rooms of the editor and of the manI ager, while in the editorial room hangs ; a sketch of the founder, Thomas Wakley, by Sir Edwin Landseer. Why was Thomas Wakley in a rage ’ when he founded “The Lancet,” and ' how did the private exasperation of a completely unknown doctor, aged only r 28, come to bear such conspicuous fruit? His own career as a student 1 and young practitioner furnishes the ' reply. He was the eighth son of a Dorset- ) shire farmer, walked to London to 1 save money which he would require for fees and books, obtained his diploma without any Individual aid from the teachers at his hospital—at least, ’ so he believed—and on being qualified 1 found that he was condemned, under ) the system of favouritism and nepl otism prevalent in the London schools ’ of medicine a century ago, to remain 3 an obscure and struggling practitioner -—one to whom all reasonable chances • of advancement would be denied. For | the staffs of the hospitals neglected 5 their educational duties toward the 3 students in general, confining their 3 interest to those lucky youths who were either their relatives, the chil- - flren of their friends, or the disbursers 3 of large fees for apprenticeship. c Younk Wakley had no personal relations with his teachers of any sort and no money; and while he saw con- ’ temporaries of less mental power than ’ himself already marked out for material success, he felt that no such „ happy fate would befall him. Savagely Assaulted As a matter of fact, one way out _ offered itself and Thomas Wakley t made an advantageous marriage, in circumstances which display him, it . should he added, as a lover and not t as a fortune-seeker. But a promising 5 start in practice, with the aid of his , wife’s family, came to a prompt and disastrous end. The young couple took 1 and furnished handsomely a house in [ a good and almost fashionable neigh--3 bourhood and immediately the house i was set on fire, while Wakley was savagely assaulted. The episode at the time was a mystery, but later a curious and sensat tional explanation emerged. Thistle- , wood, a political desperado, had just 5 been publicly executed, and It was > rumoured that the masked agent of i .justice was Thomas Wakley. It is now known who the executioner was and how the wrongful re- : port arose, but Thistlewpod’s fol- ; lowers believed what they had been : told and took this method of reprisal, i The method ruined the victim. The t insurance company refused to pay, 3 hardly believing that such valuable ■ property as was claimed for was in i the possession of these young people, i and Wakley was unable to give any reason for the personal vindictiveness : against himself. Action at law terminated finally in Wakley’s favour, but ■ by this time his expenses equalled the - sums received, and when he went to a > more modest domicile in Norfolk Street he was a deeply injured man. i In this frame of mind the idea of l starting a newspaper in the interests of the large unprivileged class of prac--1 titioners took its shape. The first 1 preface had courage, for the young : editor declared that he would “produce a work that would convey to the public ' and to distant practitioners, as well as to students In medicine and surgery, reports of the metropolitan hospital lectures” . . . “and a correct description of all the important cases that may occur, whether in England or any part of the civilised Continent” . . . “while our columns will not be re- ; stricted to medical intelligence.” Fiery Comment Attracts Notice The earliest number hardly lived up to this brave programme, but the oi dinary conventions of language were observed in them, and few could have guessed what a train of powder was being laid, shortly to be fired. Soon, however, some reflection upon the conduct of certain of the great metropolitan charities frightened the hospital authorities, and it was the attitude displayed by them in their trepidation, which ushered in a period of violent recrimination. The authorities, determined to shut down upon Wakley’s criticisms, forbade him to enter the walls of the charities which they managed, threatened all who helped him in producing his paper with expulsion, stigmatized the issue of hospital lectures as a theft from the authors, and hinted that Wakley himself was a discredited adventurer, a failure in his profession and suspected of arson. ! „2F hus there was started between a he Lancet” and the leaders of the medical profession in London a quar- | rel Which raged furiously for ten years, which spread in unexpected directions, and which took 15 years and more to die down. Many of the episodes in the quarrel were of a highly dramatic nature and between 1823 and 1833 the paper was engaged in ten actions at law, its opponents being eight separate persons. They denounced Wakley as a literary pirate and a disseminator of moral garbage; he pointed to his growing circulation as a proof that he was supplying information that was valuable and valued, bestowed nicknames with cruel point upon persons who were leading lives of sheltered dignity, and not only hinted at astonishing revelations that would follow j on the publicity which he intended to give to hospital affairs, but practically j accused a famous surgeon of having

murdered a patient in the operating theatre through ignorance and loss of nerve. A Farthing Damages Considering the seriousness of the charges and counter-charges brought, the damages which passed, now one way and now another, may be considered small, but whichever side was successful was always injured in the eyes of the juries by its own indecency. In six actions for libel during these years, the aggregate sum of £B,OOO sterling was claimed from Wakley, while the aggregate sum of £155 0s id was awarded to the claimants, the odd farthing being paid as a penalty for a particularly venomous slander. Always Wakley’s damages and expenses were paid by public subscription—this all the more readily because those expenses were low, for Wakley had the wit and the nerve to be his own advocate. In the course of these actions evidence against Wakley was given frequently by men In high position in the Royal College of Surgeons of England, of which corporation Wakley was a member, and his, attention was thus directed to the management of the college. Wakley was expelled from the building of the college by the police, after having moved successfully a vote of censure at a general meeting upon the president and council. More libel actions ensued, an attempt on Wakley’s part to found a rival institution to the college showed him the futility of his attempt to deal in the pages of a class newspaper with issues that were now becoming national, and he determined to enter Parliament as a sort of “Member for Medicine.” In 1837, just as Queen Victoria ascended the throne, Wakley became M.P. for a big London constituency. Action in Parliament From this time forward he was a changed man, and his paper ceased to advocate tearing down things and adopted the finer policy of construction. Wakley projected a medical Bill in the House of Commons under which a central authority should be set up to keep an official roll of the medical profession and to standardise the education of the students seeking admission to that roll. Wakley’s Bill was short and clear; it did not succeed in getting upon the statutes, but it was the germ of the Medical Act, which shortly followed, and under which the medical profession in Great Britain to-day functions in good order. Thomas Wakley, the founder, associated with himself in the editorship his second son, James Wakley, who at the death of his father in 1862 was for a brief period sole editor, but who shortly afterward invited the collaboration of an elder brother, the second Thomas Wakley. James Wakley died in 1886, when the second Thomas Wakley called to his side his son, the third Thomas Wakley, the father and son editing the paper together until the death of the former in 1907 at the age of 86. The third Thomas Wakley died two years later, when the present editor, Sir Squire Spr.igge, who had been assopiated with the paper for 15 years, was appointed, thus breaking a remarkable family tradition. Throughout their tenure of office the family all kept steadily before them the primary aim of the eldest of them to raise the professional status of the doctor and disseminate accurate information.