Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 1.djvu/455

 these amounts some conception may be formed of the extension of the charity which Dr. Thackeray was enabled to effect, for to his strenuous exertions must this extension be chiefly attributed. In 1825, the annual subscriptions scarcely exceeded what they were ten years before, £955; yet, in 1826, they advanced to £1296, and underwent, in each succeeding year, a progressive increase, until, in 1832, they reached £1484.

It is illustrative of the natural bent of Dr. Thackeray's thoughts and feelings, that his earliest efforts in favour of the charity, were directed to providing for the spiritual wants of the patients, by the establishment of a chaplaincy fund. The first movement towards creating this fund, was the presentation of £100 by Mrs. Thackeray, given, as her letter to the governors states, " in humble acknowledgement of God's mercies for her recovery from a long protracted illness." At the same time, Mrs. Thackeray, as a governor, suggested the expediency of forming a chaplaincy fund, in order that the poor patients of the infirmary should have the benefit of those religious consolations from which she had herself derived so much support. From this period. Dr. Thackeray laboured with great zeal and diligence, to effect the purpose which we may fairly presume he had himself first conceived. From his subsequent memorials, addressed, from time to time, to the governors of the hospital, it appears that, for several years, the spiritual wants of the hospital had been gratuitously supplied by the occasional ministry of clergymen in the vicinage, officiating in monthly rotation, but principally by the labours of one exemplary