BMJ

Letter from W. A. Cox, Esq., on the Case: "Bourne v. Cox"

Author(s): W. A. Cox
Source: Provincial Medical and Surgical Journal (1844-1852), Vol. 16, No. 21 (Oct. 13, 1852), pp.
537-538
Published by: BMJ
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25493550 .
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 MR. COX ON THE LATE TRIAL IN THE BATH COUNTY COURTS. 537

direction, the fund would soon fail, from the demand The circumstances I will relate as briefly as possible.
upon its resources, and the members would then be On the 16th of last June I was consulted by a patient,
left with a very scanty pittance. who gave the following account of himself:?About
Now, they may
two months before he had contracted gonorrhoea, for
accumulate ; but then, they would be ruined, and the
fund will be found to be which he had from that time been under a druggist ;
only inexhaustible charitable
and about a week ago he had had suspicious intercourse;
the Medical Benevolent Fund, not theMedical Benevo
from which he feared had arisen fresh symptoms of
lent College. The introduction of this term in this
disease.
place, leads me to add a few brief words on this latter
On examination, I found he had gonorrhoea with
scheme; and I would wish to
speak of it with all stricture of the urethra, an ulcer which I believed to
imaginable kindness, and with unbounded respect and be syphilitic, with an eruption on the margin of the
admiration for its chief supporter, Mr. Propert. Mr.
prepuce, which was indurated, and in a state of
Propert has accomplished what I believe no other man
phimosis. He had also an inflamed gland on Poupart's
could have done : his own views are truly benevolent ;
ligament on the right side. He appealed to me to cure
and by the agency which he has employed, he has him as as possible, as he was about to go
quickly
accumulated a large sum of money. But I would abroad. I put him under a mild mercurial course*
venture to say, though large, it is very inadequate for advised him to foment and the bubo, and
poultice
the great purpose he proposes to effect. Of the consti recommended the passing a bougie medicated with
tution of the College, I wish to say nothing, but simply copaiba night and morning; a practice which I have
to express my fears, grounded upon the facts of past found very efficacious in old-standing gonorrhoea. On
that it is impossible to keep it free from the his representing to me the impossibility of making the
history,
disturbing agencies, which in other places and profes necessary applications at his own home without detection
of the urgency of
sions, have thrown the blight of discord upon the best by his mother, I, in consideration
conceived views, and introduced elements of distraction the case, permitted him to attend at mine, where I
within the College To carry out the design made the
necessary applications myself. These
precincts.
fully, an enormous outlay will be at first required, and attendances occupied generally half an hour, sometimes
And in addition to these attendances, so
a princely reserve must be saved for a permanent source longer.
anxious was he about his case, that he was at my house
of income. Without this the best conceived plans must
sometimes three, sometimes four times a day. This
fail ; and in order to give the College a hope of carrying
treatment was continued till the 24th of July, when he
out its designs, it must not be left with a debt upon its
during my absence, had his last bottle of
nor dependent applied
shoulders, upon the precarious support and left, stating that he was much better, and
medicine,
of annual subscriptions. True, it will have the advan
would call on the following Saturday for his bill, which
tage of possessing a locality?visible and tangible, the he requested I would make out.
visible will be there when its walls are reared, in the
It may be as well that I here state, that about the
beautiful scenery of Epsom ; the tangible is only to be 4th of July my patient showed me a bottle of medicine
obtained in its educational boons, or in its asylum for he had got from Mr. Field, the usual medical attendant
widows or decayed medical men, by the possession of of the family, whom his mother had called in, seeing
a certain amount of income, and certain means of her son was out of health ; and asked me if it would
defraying the expenses of a canvass. after all, I
And, interfere with my medicines. I at once, feeling the
cannot but think, that this same expenditure, about to awkwardness of two medical men being in attendance,
be invested in bricks and mortar, would and yet not acting together, urged him to confide in
produce an
Mr. Field, and let him go on with his venereal disease.
infinitely greater amount of good, if invested in consols,
and the income therefrom derived were applied to To this he strongly objected, fearing Mr. Field would
; and finding I
granting annuities, and the aged males or females (after make his state known to his mother
could not overcome his scruples, I consented to con
the example of the Benevolent Fund,) were permitted
to enjoy these annuities at their own homes, surrounded tinue attending him.

by their own little comforts, tended by the kindness of

He was then attended by me, with no ordinary
sacrifice of time and trouble. He was virtually cured,
families, and placed at home?the only situation for
|as Mr. Harries's evidence showed, who saw him imme
the real development of so much of the charities of
after he ceased attending on me. And mark the
home?the sympathies of relative kindness, and the diately
return he makes me. I neither see nor hear of him
a
affections of family.
till I am informed casually on the 6th of August, that
[To be continued.]
he was about to sail the following day for Australia. I
then, giving him to the last moment to call on me, went
LETTER FROM W. A.COX, ESQ., ON THE to his house between seven and eight o'clock in the
confirmed that
CASE?" BOURNE v. COX." evening, and there had the information
he had left Bath, and was to sail from Bristol the fol
To the Editor of the Provincial Medical and Surgical lowing day, at twelve o'clock. I came home and made
Journal. out my bill in my ledger, and in so doing I felt that I
I conceived
Sir,?I herewith send you a fuller and more correct was justified in making the full charges that
report of the County Court case commented on by you the law would allow me. I considered the time, the
in your last number, and most readily answer your call trouble, and the unusual nature of the services rendered,
for an explanation. and rendered at his request; and I did not think that

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 538 FOREIGN DEPARTMENT.

half-a-guinea, under the circumstances of the case, was patient never afforded me an opportunity of so doing,
more than I was justified in charging him. This brought and I could not send it to his home without risking
his bill to ?21. 5s. ; and by the advice of Mr. Slack, discovery by his mother of that secret he was so anxious
a most respectable attorney, I arrested him for this to keep from her.
amount. I had reason to know that he was a young There is another circumstance I must allude to. It
man of property ; but he pleaded poverty, and I con is, as to the interlineation of the operations. This
sented to take ?15, and give him his discharge. He arose, as I explained on the trial, from the fact of the
then returns to Bath, trumps up a story, which, on the operations having been performed after the medicines
trial was proved to be false, that I had sent him in a had been ordered in the day-book, and I pointed out to
bill for ?2. 6s. ; and his friends commence an action the Judge and Jury many similar entries in the same
in the County Court for malicious arrest, laying the book to other patients. Mr. John Barrett has since
damages at ?50. Not content to await the trial, the closely examined my day-book, and has publicly
public-houses all over the city are made use of to declared, in a letter to the Bath Journal, that "the
circulate the grossest calumnies, and thus a strong internal evidence of the whole book supports Mr. Cox's
feeling is excited against me. Confident in the justice statement as to the manner in which those entries were
of my own case, although I heard six medical men made." I have through him invited, and I here repeat
were to be brought forward by the plaintiff, yet, as I the invitation, of an examination of my day-book to
flattered myself that I stood pretty well with the any member of the profession whose mind may not be
profession, being conscious that I bad never done a satisfied on this point.
dishonourable action towards any one of them, I relied This, Sir, is my case, as it stood after the trial, and
on their honour and integrity, and did not provide here I should have been contented to leave it for the
myself with a single medical testimony on my behalf. public to judge of it, with confidence that they would,
I was generously offered support (not by those who on cool reflection, put a proper estimate of my conduct
gave evidence in my favour on the trial, but by a in this transaction, that they would remember it was
gentleman of as high respectability and as long standing no feature in my conduct to overcharge, overdose, or
as any in the profession in this city), but I refused defraud ; and that they would see I had been led into
to allow another to share in the prejudice that had what might be considered extreme measures in order to
been raised. The trial came on, and then to my utter prevent a dishonest and unprincipled man defrauding
astonishment I found the medical witnesses me of my due.
deposing
to the of the existence of such a compli But as it appears you make the chief point in the
impossibility
cation of diseases as that for which I had made out case to be the large quantity of medicine sent in, which,
a bill, and which I swore had existed in you say, gives a handle to the homoeopath, let us see
subsequently
this case. Fortunately for me there were two gentle what this large quantity amounts to. Just one six
men in court, Messrs. Bush and John Barrett, who ounce bottle and one powder per day. If this be an
had the manliness and generosity to stand forward offence against legitimate practice, I much fear I sin in
when they saw an attempt made to crush a professional this respect in company with the greater portion of my
brother, and voluntarily gave evidence on their own medical brethren, and I must cry peccavi, and endure
experience that they had seen similar cases. I here any reproach I may have incurred thereby.
beg publicly to thank them ; and I tell them that I But, Sir, I have done. I have laid my case before
appreciate their conduct the. more because it the profession, and I neither fear what their verdict will
highly
arose from the spontaneous and unsolicited be on my conduct, nor do I fear what will be the
impulse of
generous, manly, and independent ultimate verdict of the public.
feeling.
But can I wonder at the verdict that was returned I am, Sir, your obedient Servant,
after the medical evidence for the that evidence W. A. COX,
plaintiff,
"
being, as the Judge charged the Jury, that they all
agreed that they did not believe that the diseases which
were specified on the face
of the bill, ever could coexist
in the same patient.
September 8th, 1852.)
(See Bath and Cheltenham Gazette,
Observe, the adverse medical
Steigt! Iprtmntt
evidence denied the possibility of the coexistence of GERMANY.
gonorrhoea and syphilis. With such evidence as this
before them, the Jury could come to no other conclusion
than that the bill was a concoction, and the whole MATERIA MEDICA AND THERAPEUTICS.
transaction a fraud.
My only wonder is, that with On the Action and on the Method of Preparing
such extraordinary medical evidence the
against me, Cathartin.
Jury were bold enough to cut down the damages from
to ?15. Trenkler prepares cathartin from the unripe green
?50
With berries of rhamnus cathartica. It resembles pure
regard to the bill, portions of which you have
aloethin, both in a chemical and in a therapeutical
quoted, I must throw the responsibility of the form of
it on my attorney, it was drawn up point of view. One or two grains of cathartin in the
by whose direction
and delivered to the plaintiffs on their appli form of pills produceor two, or in a
one
attorney, usually
cation, after the action was commenced. susceptible patient, three or four pulpy stools,
In explanation of no bill having been delivered without griping. Three grains form a large dose.
previous to the arrest, the simple answer is, that the If the first dose should fail to produce the desired

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