The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1870-02-08 00:00:00

Mr°

RSET COUNTY EXPRESS

Yon thL token of their regard and esteem—(applanae).
At the Name arm they wish that you may have long life
arid happiness to enjoy the well-merited repose which
you have so justly muted —(loud applauel.
Mr. H. P. Caramels said that some time lad
muttner, he as well es many others, was mua grieved
to hear of the determination of Mr. Fos to retire from
professional life. Their regret was so great that ail
hardly knew in what +ay to express their feelings. It
appeared to him that the most appropriate way a (loins
no would be by preeenting him (Mr. Fos) with • testi-
monial, whereupon himself and sundry others set the
matter going, they fornied • committee, and issuedtheir
circulars. They received subscription', and certainly
succeeded quite equal to their eepeotatione, and the
result of it Mr. Fox would imitator him. (Applause.)
Be must now express his thanks to the committee for
their able auistancie to himself as honorary secretary and
treasurer. He must also give bL beet thanks to
Dr. Rhodes and Mr. Sytnee for their rat assistance In
furnishing names and other information without which
he weld not have been so successful. Espesially he
must thank Mr. Luce for his extreme liberality in giving
them the use of this room, and also • room on other
ocusions for the use of the committee. They all felt
of course very deep regret that Mr. Fox had been obliged
to surrender hie proton= at • time when he really
appeared as strong and as well able to wary it on as
ever he hod been. Bat, as he was no determined, the
present appeared to them who originated the matter,
the best way to signify their feelings on the subjeet—
(app/snee).
Dr. Fox said Kr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen
—in the first place, Mr. Chairman, you must permit me
to offer you my grateful thanks for the honour you have
done me in presiding hers to-day. In the next place
my amity especially are due to Mr. Cambridge, and
those gentlemen associated with him as the oommittee
. ,
f.r the trouble they have taken in doing the work
that bee culminated in thie large meeting. To you, I
my kind friends of every clam. let me say that
under the peculiar cireumstuices of my present
position, anrroundei as I am by no large • number of
friends, I must indeed have a heart of stone if I did
not feel deeply this mark of your kindly feelings
towards me ; indeed so deeply, that I fur my tongue
will feel to give utterance to all I ought to gay and
would desire to say on such an orscuion al this ; and
I must, therefore, plead for your indulgence for my
shortUrnings—for fall short I most—whilst I say a
few words about myself and the profession to which I
belong. I hive been told that I am too young and too
active a man to retire altogether from a profession I so
much love and to which I have 1.... en wedded for no
many year.; but appearances are sometimes deceitful.
They are in my case, and • little monitor within tells
we I have acted wisely, for I know that I have well-
nigh worn myself out in your service; yet the sight of
this splendid testimonial, apart from Its large money
value, accompanied as it has been by expressions of
the warmest attachment end esteem, makes me feel
young agein, and it will help to soothe the declining
years of • life nos necessarily fast drawing to a alma
It most be also deeply gretifying to her whose health
is indeed now shattered, but who nevarthalee, for •
period of just 40 years, has been my WA helpmate
and ths willing .harer with me of the beet and burden
of the day. To my children this must be • red-letter
day never to be effaced from their memory. On look.
log bask to the eornmencement of my career, and now I
again at its termination, I cannot doubt that the
resolutions I made at starting—to let the great feature ,
of my life be one of satire aellabeegatioo, to love my
Profession for the great privilege.' it would bestow upon
ma, to let its pleasures aud its joys always out-weigh
its toils,ita intense anxieties and heavy responsibilities, ,
its deep mortification' and bitter disappointment', to
be ever indoeneed by higher motives than mare d •
and above all never to forget that the poor from
their very position, their crowded dwellings, their
aunty clothing, and their "tinted diet, were necessarily
more liable to deems" and accident than the rich, and
were, therefore, at least equally entitled to sympathy
and commiseration during their hours of names and
want —I say, I cannot doubt that these meolutions
were the right, and my own opinion has been con-
firmed by your verdict of this day. I know that they
have given me opportunities of studying the dark side
of human life in the hovels of the poor, I know they
have taught me lessons of humanity which I hope and
believe have not been altogether lost upon ens. I know
they have given me independence and what is better still,
the mimed of an approving conscience. One of our lead-
ing men in London, who, like myself, began with good
resolutions and empty pockets, was once staked to what
be attributed his SIMON, and he replied "I orept
over the back, of the poor into the pockets of
the rich," and surely I may now say the same, and by
way of illustration I may mention one ease. Some
thirty or thirty-tive years ago I was requested to
attend • pamper patient. She wee incurable, but she
lived for several year% ger sufferings were great,
and were borne with an amount of Christian for-
titude and patience rarely equalled, perhaps never
excelled. At last she died, and her history
was written by • clergyman under the title
of "Gold refined in the fire." This little book fell into
the hands of • rich patient of mine who was suffering
under a somewhat similar disease, and when about to
die he requested his mother to leave me a legacy as a
money payment for my attendance upon my pauper
patient. She outlived her son 9 years, and at her death,
then, and not until then, had I the most remote idea
I was going to be paid twentyfold for my services. So I
think I too may truly say I crept over the leaks of the
poor into the pockets of the rich ; but still I bad
my struggles at first starting, as moat men have,
and I believe it is true that the medical profession in
this country, taken altogether, Ma needy profession, and
my intimate knowledge of the operations of the Medical
Benevolent Society and Medical Benevolent College
would confirm tbe truth of the statemeetand that most
nuEitMethe? !.aelreirjjaiitio hilKield'irke 1 triit
truly say that such was my cam for Neutral years, when
Sy mode..t wants of every day
The toil of every day supplied.
But alter • time the tide of smous began to flow, and
I ant inclined to think the mine was in a great measure
due to the persevering and watchful care I bestowed
upon the sick whether in public or private practice,
with an utter disregard of self so lung as I
felt I could be of any use. Perhaps something
was alto due to a sanguine and hopeful temperament,
combined with untiring patience, more especially
in the lying-in room, and I believe few men have
had more suoreas in that branch of my profseion than
I have during the whole period of my career. I have
been told that I sometimes made too much of trifle.;
but when I tell you that I have known the mere turning
and fastening dorm of the of • pillow procure
an hour's quiet, refreshing, health-restoring sleep,
murely it Is the lesser error than the more prevalent and
opposite tee of altogether neglecting small things. At
all events I know that T have thereby won success and
the attachment of kind friends, and I have cone to the
conclusion that any man who heneetly. zealously, and
with singleness of purpose, devotes himself to the
duties of hie profeuion, will sooner or later command
reaped and obtain a fair if not an ample reward. I
speak, for I know from personal experienee, how hard •
fight it is at first starting. A young man has to learn
what has hese° termed the tact of preen*, ; he has to
mark well all that is said and does in the sick chamber
,•
he has to see and hear, and yet at times to be deaf and
blind ; he has to learn to comprehend all that goes on
outside the sick chamber, the feeling", the ersiudioss,
and the very ignorance of the relatives, friends, and
even of ths.onrsee. He has to learn to nioognise the
difference between symptoms arising from canoes within
the bode and thou easing from external or mere mental
crausee, in fact he has to learn to understand when an
ounce of sympathy will he of more value than a pound
of physic; but then that sympathy to be tfiio•42io[lll
mast flow from the love of his profession, mast be real
and not simulated. And now,my kind friends, in Wang
leave of you after • long life of toil and tonicity,
risk and exposure, of danger both by day and by night
—and to show you that the risks and dangers are not
altogether imaginary, I may tell you that I ones spent
the whole night in one of the worst, if not the very
wont, mud hovels in th• Yale of Blackmoor, that I was
wet to Uri skin, that every step I took on the damp
clay floor I left my footprints behind, that I had the
choice of three seats, either tbe edge of my patient's
bed, on a large stone, or on • skeleton chair, that le a
chair with the bottom of it wanting—that one corner of
the room was mentioned off by a hurdle behind which
was the winter stook of potatoes, that my horse, hariplly
not • large one on that oocaston,was my companion in
that self-same room, and that although I presented the
happy husbend with twins, I did not get the splendid
reward of Sir W. Suites country apothecary, a cep of
buttermilk and a roasted potato, for cow there was
none, nor fire sufficient to roast • potato : that I have
hem in danger of being washed away whilst riding
through the swollen or flooded rivers : that I have
wandered about for hours on the top of the most
exposed downs In this county during the dark
foggy winter nights, with the risk of falling into •
chalk pit arid breaking my neck : that I have had
to out • path through • deep snow drift for myself
and my horse: and these were risks and dangers
which nothing but an Iron constitution, backed up by
rigid temperance and a strong love of my profession,
enabled me with God's good providence to overcome
and defy. But let me assure you there Is nothing more
satisfactory and gratifying, nothing more consolatory
and soothing in the life of a medical man, then the
grateful appreciation of his serviced by so large • number
of his patients representing all classes. I cannot, like
the great magnate of Home, pretend to infallibility,
I cannot boast of having a greater amount of intuitive
, knowledge and foresight than any of may neighbours;
but I can and do bout of having devoted the but
energies of my mind and body to your service with
the determination to deserve sumer and to win your
confidence and esteem ; and, looking at the position I
now occupy, I think I may say without laying myself
open to the charge of vanity, that I have not altogether
laboured in vain. You may therefore imagine. bat I
cannot expreas,what my feelings are at this moment;
and greeted as I am with so much cordiality
by all climes, I feel I dare not make the attempt, for
your kindness sinks deep into my heart, and I feel it
stirred to its inmost core. I must ask you, therefore,
to wept the grateful thanks of • warm heart, and to
believe that I speak in all sincerity and truth, when I
say this is the proudest day of my the, a day of gratifi-
cation never to be forgotten, and I can only pray God to
bestow upon each and every one of you, the great
blessing of a sound mind in • sound body; but if
He in His infinite wisdom should see fit to order-it
otherwise, then I can only entreat each and everyone
of you to seek for, and if you seek aright, I am
sure you will incl, that peso, and that happiness
which passes all nadereanding and which
neither sishneas nor suffering can take away.
(Applause).
CAMBIIIDOZ moved • vote of thanks to Mr.
Hambro for his kindness in taking the chair.
Seconded by the Rev. J. NIA?.

Mr. HouttiniC this was the mooed testimonial he
had had the pleasuro of seeing presented Co Dr. Fox,
who had justly said that he bed crept from the poor to
the rich.

TBOWAS spoke of the kindness of Dr. Fox to
different ranks end different societies, and mentioned
something of what be personally knew of the doetor's
attention to his (Mr. Thomas's) own funily. He felt
grateful to those gentlemen who had been instrumental
in bring,ng this matter so prominently forward, and
especially to Mr. Cambridge, without whom, he thought,
it would have not taken the form it had. He moved a
rote of thanks to the Committee.
. .

1.7r...-Switaa said that tines hrhad rilooteided to Dr.
Fox's pragotioe at Oerne. he war continually brought
into contact with Nigro of Um most grateful appraoin.