Page:Introductory lecture delivered at the Middlesex Hospital, October 1st, 1877 (IA b22447258).pdf/3



My task to-day seems difficult, yet it is easy. Difficult, when I remember those who each year have spoken words of wisdom and encouragement from this place. Easy, when I turn to you, my audience, knowing that my shortcomings will be more than covered by that kind indulgence which I feel sure will be granted me to-day.

If my demands are large I am conscious your liberality will be accorded in needful measure.

Although the majority of us are mainly concerned with the present and the future far more than with the past, yet there are occasions when a retrospect of the past is the strongest stimulus to future work.

It is with this feeling I believe a short survey of the early history of this Hospital and this School will not be without its interest.

To the writings of a former Surgeon and Lecturer on Anatomy and Physiology, and a Governor of this Hospital, Mr. Erasmus Wilson, I am indebted for most of the facts I am about to lay before you.

About 130 years ago the "Middlesex Infirmary," as it was then called, consisted of two small houses in Windmill Street, Tottenham Court Road. A year or two later, in 1747, in order to increase the accommodation, the Governors appear to have