The Sun.
London, England, 1846-06-29 00:00:00

KING'S COLLEGE HOSPITAL.

A very numerous and respectably attended meet-
ing took place at three o'clock on Saturday, in the
Hall of the King's College, for the purpose of raising
a fund for the purchase of a site adjoining the hospital,
and erecting thereon an additional building for the re-
ception of patients.
The Archbishop of Canterbury presided. His Grace
was supported on his right and left by his Royal
Highneis the Duke of Camkridge, the Bishop of London,
the Bishop of Oxford, the Bishop of Lichfield, Aril-
deacon Manning, Archdeacon Robertson, Viscount
Sandon, Lord Ashley, Sir Robert Inglis, &c.
Prayers having been offered, the Secretary read the
financial statement, from which it appeared that, in con-
cequence of the number of applicants for relief, it had
become absolutely necessary to raise an additional fund
to carry out the benevolent objects of the institution.
Viscount SANDON, in moving the first resolution, said
that the objects which they were met on that occasion
to promote, were of the most Christian and charitable
description that it cold be possible to propose. The
institution, o❑ the behalf of which he had to appeal, was
not less distinguished for its great skill in the science of
medicine, than for its intimate connexion with religion,
and it would he perfectly useless in him to expatiate on
its merits, for it would be attempting
" To gild refined gold, to paint the lily."
-

But he did recollect hearing a Noble and Learned Lord
speak against snch institutions as the present, and pro-
nounce them to be often dangerous to the principle of
liberty of action.—(Hear, hear.) These words, how-
ever, were the effervescence of the moment, and they
had arrived at that tranquillity of the mind, in which
they recognised the worth and the utility of an intimate
connexion between religion and science.—(Applause.)
And he did hope that the patients in the hospital would
derive the advantages which should necessarily flow
from such a connexion. He would take that opportunity
(if suggesting that the system of female attendance
should be adopted in the hospital. Much would remain
to be done upon this point, He trusted that in Protestant
England, as well as in Catholic countries, a charitable
sisterhood would be established for the attendance of

the sick.—(Hear, hear.)—,He-was not authorised to
make the suggestion, but he was sure that it was
one which would be well received, and he would
beg to move the first resolutiirn, which was to the effect
that, as the present hospital was not sufficiently large,
a fund should be raised for the purpose of purchasing a
site for the erection of another building.
Sir R. INGLis seconded the resolution, which met his
cordial approbation. The institution had worked ad-
mirably already, and no matter how largely or ex-
tensively they might build, he lamented to say they would
always find a more than adequate supply of disease.
He would warmly recommend that the suggestion of
the Noble Lord should be carried into effect. A cup of
cold water tendered to the suffering patient by a female
attendant was far preferable to the most assiduous at-
tentions of the stronger sex.—(Hear, hear.) He would
conclude by observing that he for one would be ready
to promote by every means in his power the objects and
interests of the institution.

The Learned Prelate then put the resolution which
was carried unaninasusly.
The Lord Bishop of OXFORD, who was received with
great applause, said the resolution which he had to move
was to the following effect :—" That some of the medical
officers of King's College Hospital, having most
liberally taken upon themselves the responsibility of
purchasing a site adjoining the hospital, as peculiarly
well adapted for the purposes of the college, this meet-
ing considers that the most strenuous exertions ought
to be made for the raising of a fund to relieve them from
their responsibility, and to erect an additional building :
and that the fund so to be raised shall be called the
Building Fund of the King's College Hospital." The
purport of the resolution, he said, seemed to be, to in-
vite those who had hitherto taken no. or at least a
small, part in the preliminary steps for the foundation of
this hospital, to join heartily in raising funds necessary
to set it upon a permanent and sufficient footing.—
Hear, hear.) They were invited to come into the field
in order to aid the noble exertions of those officers of the
institution who had been willing, rather than see their
fellow creatures lose the benefit of the proposed build-
ing, to take upon themselves the whole responsibility of
raising it.—(Applause.) He hoped that the response
which the meeting would that day make to the appeals
made to them on behalf of the institution would prove
that they did not wish to see those good men left to
their extremity unsheltered and unaided in their good
work—(Applause.) He felt perfectly sure that
those appeals would not be made in vain.
A great objection it would appear, by the statements
which had fallen from Lord Viscount Sandon, existed
in the minds of some against this institution, but he
thought that the best answer that could be given to the
objection alluded to, and indeed all objections against
an institution like this, was the amount of benefits
which they had conferred. Every sick man whom the
officers of this institution relieved from his sickness was the
better enabled to return to the bosom of his family in a
condition to earn for them their necessary food and
clothing. The sufferers whom such institutions as these
were the medium of relieving, were their brethren in
Christ, to whom they were called upon to minister, if
they were indeed followers of Christ. Hospitals like
these rested upon the very first principles of Chris-
tianity, for their was no more distinguished feature in
the life of Christ than his continually going about
doing good, and relieving all manner of sickness
and diseases amongst the people—(Applause.) And the
-whole history of the Church, since -its establishment,
abounded with instances of the raising of hospitals,
houses of refuge for the miserable, by its members.—
(Hear.) It was a remarkahle fact to any one reading
ancient history, and comparing the great cities of olden
times, in which wealth was lavished to administer tc/ the
wants and pleasures of the rich, there could be found no
account of any hospitals having been raised for the re-
lief of the sick poor. There were undoubtedly shows
provided for the poor at the expense of the rich, who
made use of that expenditure as a means of serving their
ambitious purposes. They had no authentic account of
any institutions having been raised, amidst all the amount
of wealth that existed in those ancient cities, for the re-

lief and recovery of the ieceased and afflicted poor.
They might therefore assume that Christianity, amongst
its unnumbered and untold blessings at every turn and
in every way, had this amongst the rest--that its wealthier
disciples had, in every nation in which it had been es-
tablished, erected houses of refuge, and hospitals like
those, for the relief of their poor sick brethren.—(Ap-
plause.) And on that ground this hospitalhad aspecialde-
mand upon their support and sympathy. It would train
up the medical students in the practice of religion; and
the present perfection of the healing art was, in his
oninion, to a very great degree the result of Christi-
anity amongst us. Christianity it was that taught us
to view disease in its right character, and to view man,
who was the subject of disease, in his right character.
It had given men at once courage to exert themselves
in discovering the cause 9nd arresting the deadly progress
of disease. It was on that ground, therefore, that the
most prominent and the best feature in this institution
was that it taught the students the precepts of the
Christian religion.—(Applause.) When they lost that
religion they would lose a reverence for the human
being on whom they might thereafter be called upon to
attend in their professional capacity, because they had
first lost a becoming reverence for their God, the creator
of that human being.—(Hear, hear.) But the religious
surgeon, when ministering to his sick fellow creature,
felt that he was performing an act of Christian benevo-
lence; and that he (the Lord Bishop of Oxford) took
to be one of the great objects in founding this hospital:
its students were taught to be sound Christians and
perfect surgeons, and thus the poor of our crowded
metropolis received incalculable boons. The meeting
(concluded his Lordship)
and the public at large were
invited to take part in this work, and a blessing it
was to be allowed in any measure to take
part in the ministrations of the Church's
charities, in blessing their suffering neighbours
around them; blessed especially to those who took an
active part in carrying out the designs of the institution,
whether in the character of sisters of charity or as
surgeons. It was a most blessed thing to be employed
in ministering to and healing the sick, and giving peace
to their afflicted brethren.

Lord ASHLEY, in seconding the resolution observed,
that after the speech which had been delivered by the Right
Rev. Prelate, little remained for him to say except that
he most heartily concurred in the arguments which had
balm advanced. He wished, however, to call the atten-
tion of the meeting to the conduct of the medical offi-
cers who had voluntarily come forward and incurred a
heavy responsibility only in the reliance that a generous
public would come to their assistance and take the
burden from their shoulders ; and from his own experi-
ence he could state that there was no profession which
was more eminently charitable, or gave more gratuitous
advice and assistance to the poor, than the medical.—
(Hear, hear.) Such an institution as the present
would be invaluable in the great metropolis of
London, the crowded state of which in many districts
was past belief. He himself had seen twenty living in
oue room—three or four distinct families occupying one
and the same apartment, which was not bigger than a
common dressing-room or els ; three families disposed
in opposite corners, and a fourth perhaps in the centre,
was not an unfrequent sight. How was it possible that
any consolation, either moral or medical, could be ad-
ministered to those unhappy individuals, should they need
it, in the presence of the other occupants—(Hear, hear.),
The hospital will remedy this. And in these crowded alleys
could it be wondered at that disease and fever should pre-
vail. There was another observation which he wished
to make. The Legislature was exceedingly to blame
for not taking measures to compel the drainage of some
of these localities, which were in a most beastly and
disgusting state. In the mean time, however, it was
their duty to remedy the ills of their fellow-creatures to
the utmost of their power. The Noble Lord concluded
by seconding the resolution, which, having been put was
declared to be carried unanimously.
Dr. JEFF announced a subscription of 5001. from Miss
Burdett Coutts.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. COTTON moved the third resolution, which was to
the effect, that every effort should be made to extend
the usefulness of the institution ; and providing an
annual subscription fund.
Archdeacon MANNING confessed that he felt perfectly
relieved from the necessity of saying much in support
of the resolution which 'he had the honour of seconding
after the eloquent and argumentative speeches of those
that had preceded him. This hospital had in the last
six years relieved no less than 70,000 individuals.—
(Applause.) In the pig year it had relieved 17,000. Of
those it was stated in the report 11,000 had been in-
patients, and of that number part had been dis-
charged as cured, and another number, not less than
nine-tenths of the whole, had been relieved, and
discharged partially cured, and had been assisted at
their own houses. Between 14,000 and 15,000 had been
relieved as outpatients. The relief which this institu-
tion had thus afforded to the heads of families, had been
incalculable.—(Hear, hear.) The Venerable Archdea-
, con concluded an eloquent speech in aid of the objects of

the resolution, amidst loud applause. His Grace put the
resolution, which was unanimously agreed to.
The Duke of CAMBRIDGE expressed the great gratifi-
cation which he received in attending there that day,
and expressed his willingness to become chairman of the
committee appointed to raise funds for the charity, and
concluded by moving a vote of thanks to the chairman.
The Bishop of LONDON seconded the motion, which
was put and carried unanimously.
his GRACE having acknowledged the compliment in
a short speech, in she course of which he expressed his
sincere thanks to the illustrious Prince for the interest
which be had manifested in the institution,
The meeting separated at half-past four o'cloek.