The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-26 00:00:00

THE ROYAL FREE HOSPITAL.

The annual meeting of this most philanthropic
and excellent institution was held yesterday after-
noon in the Board-room of the Hospital, and was
very numerously attended. The chair was taken
shortly after three o'olock by T. B. Browne, Esq.,
High Sheriff of Gloucestershire.
Mr. S. SmITH, the secretary, read the advertise-
ment calling the meeting together ; and the Rev.
J. B. Owen, chairman of the weekly board, the
following annual report :
"In presenting to their subscribers and the
public at large the 31st annual report of the Royal
Free Hospital, the committee would thankfully re-
cognise the continued tokens of the Divine blessing
which, for above a generation of man, has so sig-
nally rested upon the charity. They particularly
advert to the distinguished patronage and increas-
ing contributions with which the hospital has been
favoured, notwithstanding the number of new
asylums multiplied from year to year in this great
metropolis, each competing with the others in the
race of varied benevolence, and all of them fairly
expecting their quota of public support.
" Many existing members of the committee have
been permitted to watch over the progress of the
Royal Free Hospital, from its very humble begin-
ning in the house in Greville-street, until, under
the august auspices of the Crown, and the contri-
butions of the people, it has attained the dimen-
sions and consolidated its position among the
first-class eleemosynary institutions.
" The committee have the gratification to an-
nounce the consent of the Lord Bishop of London
to become a vice-president of the hospital, in room
of his lordship's late right rev. predecessor in the
see. They beg also very gratefully to acknowledge
the generous donation of .£5O from the Right Rev.
Bishop Maltby, indicating his lordship's continued
confidence in the usefulness of a charity which has
long been honoured by his support.
" The anniversary dinner held in June last, at
the Freemasons' Tavern, under the kind and effec-
tive presidency of the Right Hon. the Earl Powis,
materially assisted the funds of the charity. The
committee beg to record their cordial and respect-
ful thanks to the noble earl for his lordship's very
able and zealous services on that occasion.
" The prominent feature in the financial returns
of the year was the munificent residuary bequest of
the late Harry Osborne Cureton, Esq., of which,
through the courtesy of the executors, the commit-
tee have received £2,000 on account, leaving a pro-
bable balance of £5OO, payable on the final settle-
ment of the estate. The whole of this legacy has
been expended in liquidations of outstanding lia-
bilities, materially easing thereby the annual charge
for interest on the debts of the charity. The com-
mittee beg to repeat their earnest desire to obtain,
in the ensuing year, the means of clearing off the
whole or a larger portion of the mortgage for £5,000
on the hospital—their release from which would
secure their entire income to the direct relief of
the many thousands of sick poor constantly apply-
ing at the gates. The committee trust to have it in
their power to make some addition to the number
of beds during the ensuing year, for which ample
room is provided in the new wards.

" By adhering to a system of uniform economy,
so far as it consisted with a due regard to the re-
quirements of patients, the funds entrusted to the
disposal of the committee have enabled them to
afford medical aid to no less than 40,403 in and
out patients during the year ending 31st Dec.
last, making a ?rand total since the commencement
of the hospital in 1828, of 649,088.
" During the past year the committee have re-
ceived in donations, subscriptions, and legacies,
an aggregate sum of £6,243, the details of which,
as well as the classification of patients and other
statistics, appear in the subsequent pages of this
report.
" Among the interesting incidents of the year,
the committee most thankfully, acknowledge the
receipt for the ninth time in succession, of an
anonymous munificent donation of £3OO (from
whom, said Mr. Owen, they could never ascer-
tain) ; also a generous gift of £lOO as a ' Thank
Offering' from a gentleman who withheld his name,
the motive of whose pure disinterested charity is
known only to his own feeling heart. Nor can the
committee forego the gratification of a special
notice of a benevolent lady's (Miss C.'s) sixth dona-
tion of £lOO.

" In thus thankfully commemorating the costly
offerings of the wealthy, the Committee would not
ignore the humbler contributions of the poor.
These are taken weekly out of the boxes open to
passers-by in the street, and amounted during the
year to 185 17s. 5d., of which considerable sum,
£4 2s. ld. was in copper, including no less than
232 farthings, the touching, saf-denying gratuities
of the poorest of the poor. Nothing is more en-
couraging to the committee, as an evidence of the
hospital's really doing its work, than these nume-
rous contributions of the poorer classes, who, as the
parties brought into direct contact with its medical
officers, are the hest judges of their treatment. Tes-
timony to the same effect frequently gratifies the
weekly board, in the letters of thanks from patients
affectingly acknowledging the relief they had re-
ceived.
" Other small sums under L 1 left in the office,
and not printed singly in the report, realised
£53 15s.
"The committee with great regret announce the
recent resignation cf their excellent treasurer,
John Masterman, Esq., who from increasing years
and infirmities, felt it necessary to discontinue the
office ; but they trust that Edward Masterman,
Esq., will kindly consent to accept the nomination
of the committee to the appointment in succession
to his respected father, the charity retaining thereby
the great advantage of its connection with so dis-
tinguished a firm. The committee cannot, however,
close their official relations with Mr. Masterman,
sen., without placing upon record their grateful
obligations to that gentleman for his past services,
and their earnest prayer that his valuable life may
long be spared to enjoy in dignified retirement the
happy fruits of an honourable and successful public
career.
" The committee have again the satisfaction of
adverting to the perfect cordiality continuing to
exist between the distinguished physicians of the
hospital, Drs. Brinton, Hassan, and O'Connor, and
its excellent surgeons, Wm. Marsden, Thos. H.
Wakley, Weedon Cooke, Victor de Meric, Alex.
Marsden, and Fredk. J. Gant, Esqs. Their zealous
co-operation one with another and with the house-
surgeons and dispensers, secure the most successful
results in their several departments. The thanks
of the committee are further due to Dr. H. Bennett,
the physician accoucheur, to Jas. Robinson, Esq.,
dentist, and Hasler Harris, Esq., assistant-dentist,
for the unremitting attention and skill displayed
in the discharge of their honorary duties. The
committee rejoice to observe how their own unabated
confidence and reliance on the humanity, judgment,
and professional superintendence of the hospital,
on the part of its highly respected founder, Wm.
Marsden, Esq., is so fully participated by the whole
medical staff.
" The committee have no duty more welcome
than that of repeating year after year their deep
sense of the value of the services rendered by the
Weekly Board in their constant supervision of the
arrangements, and weekly audit of the accounts of
the hospital. The knowledge of their systematic
control has attracted no ordinary measure of public
confidence in the general economy of the institution.
" The custom of distributing small sums of money
or articles of clothing, to very destitute patients on
leaving their wards often issues in such happy re.
sults as induce the committee to solicit on behalf of
such cases gifts of cast-off clothes from their sub-
scribers and friends.
" The public are respectfully reminded that the
charity having no endowments, is entirely depen dent
committee
upon voluntary contributions. The
ac-
cept the fact of the liberal support of the public
having never failed them, as the most expressive
sanction of the original and then unprecedented
rule of the Royal Free Hospital, to admit the sick
poor without putting them to the trouble (often of
no avail) to procure tickets. They are thankful to
learn that the real humanity and common sense of
this principle of free admission, has at length been
happily endorsed by its partial adoption in some
other medical institutions, whose committees, in
following the example of the Royal Fi.le Hospital,
have so far seconded and promoted that special ele-
ment of reform in medical charities, the practicable-
ness of which had been demonstrated by the expe-
rience of this institution.
" The committee conclude with the humble
ascription of all the praise and thanksgivinc, to the
Gracious Author of every philanthropic effort and
the Inspirer of every compassionate act of sympathy
and self denial for others' sake, without respect to
persons, except of such who need it most, in the
common brotherhood of our fellow men. The com-
mittee are strongly convinced that so long as the
hospital continues loyal to its own simple rudi-
mental principle of admitting destitute diseases as
the most valid claim upon its remedial charity, so
long they may confidently rely on the liberal
sup-
port of the public. They earnestly beg to commen
to themselves as well as to their subscribers the
animating sentiment which associates the real
charities of life with the glorious reversions entailed
on other modes of personal piety in the canon,
These cannot recompense thee, but thou shalt be
recompensed in the resurrection of the just.' "
The accounts as audited were next read, by which
it appeared that the receipts for the last year were

£6,784, while the expenditure was £6,597 10s. 6d.,
leaving a balance of £lB6.
The following medical report was next read :
MEDICAL REPORT OF THE NUMBER OF PATIENTS RS-