The Sun.
London, England, 1852-05-20 00:00:00

ROYAL ORTHOPXDIC HOSPITAL.

The twelfih anniversary of this excellent charity,
which was established in Bloomebury-square, in the
year 1838, for the cure of club-foot, lateral curvature of
the spine, and all other contractions and deformities,
VrCS celebrated at the Albion Tavern, Aldersgate•street,
last evening, une!er the presidency of the Earl of Shaftes-
bury, chairman of the hospital, supported by Mr. John
Ilacgregor, M.P., Mr. Jacob Bell, M.P., Mr. \V. F. A.
Delane, and many other friends of the institution. A
party of ladies occupied the gallery after the dinner,
and appeared to teke a lively interest in the proceedings.
The general condition of the charity is peculiarly grati-
fying and encouraging to its benevolent promoters, the
total receipts for the past year having been 2,418/,
103. 80., being st,ponsiderable increase over the proceeds
of the previous. year. The actual working expenditure
for the year was little more than 2,0001.; for which out-
lay 'maintenance of the most substantial kind has been
provided for 73 in-patents, the cost of all the expensive
apparatus for the treatment of these and of all the out-
patient?, and every other expense of the establishment
defrayed, being at the rate of less then 80s. per head.
rhe total number of in and out-patients admitted dur-
ing the year was 1,433, and since the original opening
of the charity no fewer than 12,003.
Grace having been said, and the usual loyal toasts
duly honoured,
The Noble CHAIRMAN rose to propose the toast of the
evening—" Prosperity to the Royal Qrthoreedie Hos-
pital." Having explained the origin and objects of the
charity, ho steted that it was founded on the modern
principal of the sub-division of labour, and like other
institutions of this metropolis—such as the Cancer Hos-
pital, the Fever Hospital, and the Small-pox
Hospital—devoted itself exclusively to one de-
partment of medical science; and experience
proved the great wisdom of that division,
both as regarded the interests of the patients and the
progress of science itself. This institution in a peculiar
degree stood in need of publicity and contributions; for
it was not among the easy and comfortable classes, but
among the poor and friendless that those awful instances
of malformation of every shape which the mind could
conceive, and far more terrible than he could venture to
describe, presented themselves to claim their succour.
Therefore, if they .wished to know the whole extent of
the evil, and the manner in which it pressed on a vast
portion of the people, they must dive into the lowest
depths of misery and disease which festered in the filthy
and uninviting dens and alleys of that vest Metropolis.
But if there were those who had neither the time
nor the taste for such minute and painful re-
searches, let them give but one hour's attendance
at the Orthopaedic Hospital, and witness the ap-
plications that were constantly made for admittance, and
he would undertake to say that they would be too
ampl.) convinced of the necessity for such an institution.
—(flear, hear.) Now the position of the charity was
this—they had a building fitted up only for a temporary
purpose, where they were enabled to receive some 36
inmates, but there were at that moment on the books no
less that 325 applicants, all of them most distressing
cases, all netting worse and worse day by day, and many
of them would have to languish for three long years
before they could bo received within the precincts of the
hospital. It was said that Nero fiddled while Rome
burned; and there they were,
waiting for the influx of
pounds, shillings, and pence, while hundreds and thou-
sands of their wretched fellow• creatures were fast pass-
ing into a state that would utterly defy the efforts of
human skill. 101. to-day was worth 1001. to-morrow,
Be giving their silver and gold to-day, under the pro-
vidence of God the crooked might be reeds straight, but
to-morrow it would require the intervention of a mira-
culous power to.cure them. If any part of the institu-
tion was more interesting to him than another it was to
observe the enormous number of children brought to it
demanding relief—children in that position in life that
if they were not admitted to receive the benefits of scien-
tific treatment they would be left,
when deprived of the
care of their parents—as many of them probably would
be at an early age—to languish forlorn and neglected
in
their dismal homes, uncheered by the light of the sun,
shut out from the breath of the fresh breeze, and never
visited, in many instances, by the voice of comfort or
consolation. Thus miserably situated, they must either
become the' inmates of the union, where their unsightly
condition would expose them to cruel taunts and heart-
less mockery, or crawl about the streets and public
thoroughfares exciting the mingled disgust and compas-
sion of the by-passers. To his mind there was something
so distressing in the case of these wretched children,
that if no other consideration would influence them, he
believed this would induce them alt to come forward and
assist in rescuing a large portion of their fellow-
creatures, and placing them, as they most undoubtedly
could, in .a:-condition in which they could walk erect,
and obtain for themselves an honest livelihood.—(Hear.)
They would observe that these hospitals stood in re-
lation to the body precisely as schools did to the
mind (Hear,- hear) --- and their most certain
and Most beneficial effects were to be produced
by taking the patients at the tenderest ages. 'Thus
is became a preventive system. They heard a great dell
said about education, and the necessity of preventing
rather than punishing crime. They might depend upon
it it was in their power to establish a most admirable
preventive system in this case also; and as by education
they could anticipate the hulks and the hangman, so by.
taking children at their most plastic age they might an-
ticipate a vast amount of human suffering, degradation,
end disease.—(Hear, hear.) The proposition of the
committee, therefore, was that they should contribute to
the extent of their power for the erection of a building
large enough to admit, not all—he prayed God to grant
teem the means—but a very increased number of these
unhappy objects.- They had already diffused the results
ottheir system to hundreds and thousands; and from
what they had done hundreds and thousands inferred
what they were still able to do. The crooked, the halt,
m A%fithieir o wealth and
Gl m r,
the maimed,sand the withered were in myriads expect-
jilt; yeah ,eagter anxiety the issue of their efforts that
night, and looking earnestly for the descent of that angel
tt
who, under the blessing Of the Almighty, would stirßethesda the
nextben benevolence.—(Cheers.)
LT the (h
(lr
healths. ,mr.
of.
*Noble Chairmanll whose services on behalf of this
end "other 61.
zrPrceated.- institutions could nut be too highly
, . e(lJear, hear He bad known the Noble
Lard for years, and tied
the devotion_whic ah
watched with pleasurable feel-
ingsto the cause of suffering _the Noble Lord had ever paid
o,f
Lhunsanity.—(Hear, hear.) To
this hoSpital the isTobl
attached, and both his purse
and
frequently plaCed -at its -dis "disposal.—(Hear,
eloquence had been
was therefore fully satisfied )a
thats the company would du
(Hear, hear.) Ho
ample justice to the toast he had
and drink the health of their Noblethpropose to them,
bun: pers.—(Cheers.)
Chairman in
The toast was drank with enthu •
br4fly acknowledged.slastra and afterwards
'Among tbe remainieg toasts were, " The Archbishops
of CanterLuty_and York" "'rho Committee of Stewards"
The Medical Officers" and " The Ladies." ,
The CHAIRMAN, in the course of the evening proposed
" the boAth of -Mr. Macgregor, M.P., and the Com-
mite., at Stewarde"
Mr. MACGREGOR briefly ackeowledged the ccmpli-
.
Met.., aed urged upon the gentlemen aroued him not to
relitklts their efforts to place the institution at the head
of the many noble charities that adorn this great metro.

T LI ti KS ii A V

1 --t.;‘

palis.—(Hear, hoar.) For his part, he could promise
them that what little aid .he could render the hospital
should at all times bo most cheerfully given, and he
should look IT no other reward but the conviction that
he was hdpir:g others to mitigate, if' not e,ntireiy to re-
move, the suff,ringl of a large number of his fellow"
creatures,—(Cbeers.)
In the course of the evening the secretary announced
ander Al. Kenzie, a late gnvrrnor. aggregate amount
the receipt of a legacy of 5004, bequeathsd by Mr. Alex-
Theof ~übJeriptione, already raised fatthe current year iNLS
declasvd to be 1,5301.

'fhe vucul sus envg6d 0 enliven the fostiv4l eJaTris"l
Messrs. Luckey, 144nd, Whitworth, and . Yiiiliips, and
Mrs. Endersoa and Alia Eyles. Mr. Toole
,offieisted as
toast-master.