Saturday press. [volume] (Honolulu, H.I.) 1880-1885, 1883-05-05
DIR. rrrcH,s pHrl.yruBopy.

DIR. FTTCH's PHTLINTHROPY.
Doctor Fitch is senior physician to the
Government Dispensary on Maunakea street,
and Doctor Rodgers, his assistant. It is well.
known that the appointment Of Doctor
Rodgers was made at the selection and with
the approval OF Doctor Fitch; and it must
certainly be presumed that the former gentle.
man was esteemed by the latter as fully com.
peient and qualified to exercise the duties Of
the Office to which he was preferred The
choice Of Doctor Rodgers must have been
deliberately made and peculiarly nice, as
coming from one who has expatated in such
glowing terms upon the brutal practices of
former physicians in their connection with the
health affairs Of the country; from one so
keenly alive to the welfare of the natives as to
have been impelled to describe the kind of
physicians needed. Every medical field
occupied by the government must be filled" I"
says Doctor Fitch, "by men who count not
their lives dear into them, but are ever ready
to be up and doing, making the question
whether they are to be paid for each individual
service a secondary consideration" Such an
one, he must doubtless have considered his
assistant, otherwise he would never have been
appointed. We have been able to learn no
reason why the estimate then made, should
now be changed; and certainly nothing but
an insignificant private pique to be satisfied
does not excuse the singular conduct by which
he would now deprive his dspensary patients
of the services Of Doctor Rodgers, during his
own absence from the island. 1t appears that
Doctor Fitch took passage by the Lehua on
Monday last for the Leper Settlement at Kala.
wac, on his regular monthly visit, intending to
remain away from town about week. On
the morning following his departure, as has
been his wont on every like occasion, Doctor
Rodgers had gone to the dispensary to fill the
vacancy Of his official senior and attend to the
wants Of patients On arrival there, he was
not long in discovering that the place had been
cleared Of drugs, records, instruments, and
many necessary appliances, and that the native
apothecary and compounder was off on leave of
absence. Being thus unceremoniously deprived,
himself of the means Of performing the duties
of his Office, and his patients of the assistance
he might otherwise have rendered them,
nothing was left to the doctor but to give up
his attendance, and close the office to await
the arrival Of his senior 1t appears that this
kind of game has been played for some time
past, but has never before been carried to a
pass whereby dispensary patients have been
totally deprived of medical attendance. Be.
tween the two doctors there exists an un.
| friendly difference. What the nature of this
difference is, concerns neither the press nor
the public, excepting in so far as it has pre-
vented certain sick person from receiving
needed attendance, which has been, and
is being, paid for by the government. Why
| should Doctor Rodgers be receiving a yearly
salary Of $I,aoo as assistant physician to the
dispensary, if his services are not needed :
And if they are needed, why should the
personal vindictveness of his (officia) superior,
be allowed to prevent them from being
rendered. That Doctor Fitch has been badly
in need of assistance at the dispensary, we
have gathered from his own complaint of
| overwork, made everywhere, at all times and
in the presence of many different people; and
this before he was placed in charge of the
settlement at Kalawao, and his duties cannot
certainly have grown less arduous since then
We have only to say that the loud and intru-
sive philanthropy of Doctor Fitch, as expressed
upon the street, in every public place, and
more especially in his late report to the Board
of Health, seem singularly at variance with
the indications in the present case. In his
report, he entered protest against the con-
duct of government physicians generally, men.
tionipg as fact, that, unfortunately in too
many instances, the physicians employed by
the board have been gentlemen too much
engrossed IN raising sugar or gentlemen of
elegant leisure to such an extent that if a
native applied for treatment, without a liberal
fee in his hand, his wants were very poorly
attended to-" Nor did he forget, in his
philanthropic outpourings, to note the fact
that, for "eleven out Of twelve years, no
physician had been provided for the settle
ment at Kalawao, characterizing such conduct
as "ghasly mockery." Although perhaps
not Immediately connected with our subject,
we will ask the question is it less ghastly
mockery now, that no physician is placed in
regular attendance at Kalawao, and that eight
or nine hundred afflicted people are necessi
tated todepend for medical assistance upon
physician who makes only flying monthly
visit among them, and then only by deprvng
his Honolulu patients Of the assistance they
also need2