Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 1.djvu/457

 the additional buildings required. Contributions were liberally supplied, a distinguished individual having presented to the building fund the munificent donation of £2000, being one-half the estimated expense. In 1828, the committee reported the completion of the additional buildings, and from a statement published in 1829, it appears that the amount contributed was £6294, the building account £5700, leaving a surplus of £594. Ere the building fund had reached the amount here stated, and while there existed an apprehension of a debt being contracted, in order to defray the expense of the new buildings. Dr. Thackeray enclosed to the committee a donation of £500 towards the prevention of debt, or the liquidation of any that might be incurred. In doing so he mentions that, of this sum, £300 had been a present made to him, by his mother-in-law, Mrs. Harden; that she fully approved his so disposing of it, and that, in consequence, he wished the £300 to be entered in the name of Mrs. Harden, a request which was accordingly complied with. In the report of the hospital for 1832, Dr. Thackeray's name appears, as a benefactor, to the extent of £1,200, independently of the sums entered in the names of Mrs. Thackeray and Mrs. Harden. The writer of this memoir has learned, from good authority, that the contributions made to the Bedford Infirmary, by Dr. Thackeray and his immediate family, were not less than £2,500.

A further object of Dr. Thackeray was to annex to the infirmary a library and a museum. In this he sought not merely the benefit of the institution, but, with the enlarged and enlightened benevolence