The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1914-02-02
THE RICHMOND v1KG1N1AN-MoNDAY, FEBRUARY 1914

s'"F'Sh os'1 49, vs. A'~tN0, ehh ~
! Hhom- a-aurgaona-of-sx established
| character, ability. experience and ca
pacity. who are associated with me
In nay private practice At the John
eton-Wiilis sanatorium. and at all of
the other hospitals with which ] am
connected, and are well Known In this
community and to the profession at
large,
In December. 1911, was much
broken down from oyerwork, and not
well, and it becams necessary for me
to temporarily curtail my work. AS
soon as ] reached that conclusion /
went TO Mr.. Graham Hobson, then
chairman of the committee on relief
of the poor. which at that time had
charge of the City hospital, and ad-
vised him of the conclusion / had
reached, and rendered him my resig-
nation as visiting surgeon. He urged
me not to resign, and suggested that
the committee should give me fur
Tough for my term in 1912. This the
committee subsequently did. az will
appear from a letter from Mr.. Hob
son accompanying this. Notwith-
standing this, my interest in the hos
pital was so great that either my
partner or one of my assistants Wis
tied the hospital every day of my term
during 1912, as appears from the ON
ciai register Of the hospital. With
reference to the year 1918 the records
of the hospital will show that !. or
my partner, DR.. Willis, or one of my
assistants. visited the hospital upon
every day of my term. 1t is charged
that in January, 1913. my visits were
extremely irregular until about or af-
ter the death of Crawley. which oc-
CURED on January 18th. The Off
cial register of the hospital shows that
/, personally. visited it every day that
month until and including the 14th
instant.
= 1t is stated In the letter that dur
ing my terms in i912 and 1913, I,
personally. visited the institution sew
enty-four times, and in another place
It is stated in this letter that | WIS.,
tied the hospital only three times in
the year 1912. From this statement
IT, therefore, appears that in the year
1913 /, personally. visited the home
seventy-one times in a period of
ninety days, and the official register
shows that my partner or one of my
associates visited ii on each OF the
remaining nineteen days
From the above facts it is clear
that there Is no evidence to sustain
any Of these charges which have been
made against me.
! am not surprised that the ma
lignancy and recklessness of DR.. Car
rington will permit him to charge me
with the responsibility Tor the death
of a fellowman without single fact
to Justify the charge, but I am as
tonished that DR.. Bryan, whatever his
personal feelings to me, could be In
duced to indorse this vile SANDER and
libel
| submit this whole matter to
| fair and intelligent public, conscious
of my own rectitude of purpose and
of my earnest effort to do my duty
to myself and my fellowman.
Respectfully,
| GEORGE BEN JOHNSTON.
| Letter From Hobson.
| Richmond, Va, February !, 1914.
| Dr. George Ben Johnston.
Richmond. Va.
My Dear DR.. Johnston, In reply
| to your request for a statement re-
garding your services as surgeon to
the City hospital for the months of
| January, February and March. 1919.
] have this to say: .
You called on me sometime late in
! December, 1911, and stated that be-
cause of the condition of your health
you found it necessary to curtail your
work, and felt incumbent upon you
to resign your position as surgeon to
the Slty nome. l. MS was SuCH II
startling determination on your part.
and realizing what a great loss to the
institution the resignation of a sur
geon of your experience and ability
meant, l Immediately, and with great
force. insisted that you should not
resign. I stated that you had been
chiefly instrumental in the formation
Of the visiting staff. and largely re-
sponsible for bringing the services of
the City hor.e to it's present state of
efficiency. and felt confident that the
committee would not sanction your
resignation. T. therefore. urged YOU
not to resign. and stated that I would
assume the authority OF giving you
leave of absence for these three
months with the understanding that
you might supply competent person
or persons to discharge the duties
during your service. You then con-
scented to this arrangement. which
was very gratifying to me.
Soon after this conversation I left
the city for rather a protracted term.
About the middle OF February when
I returned. I submitted this matter TO
the COMMITTEES on relief of the poor
| which. by formal resolution, approved
my course so that there la positively
nothing irregular in your service
during these three months.
Yours very sincerely.
GRAHAM B. HOBSON.
Chairman of the Committee on Re-
! lief of the Poor. 1911 and 1912.