In memoriam Ernest Hart, M.R.C.S., D.C.L. for over thirty years editor of the British Medical Journal and for twenty-five years Chairman of the Parliamentary Bills Committee of the British Medical Association / [Ernest Hart].

  • Hart, Ernest, 1835-1898
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: In memoriam Ernest Hart, M.R.C.S., D.C.L. for over thirty years editor of the British Medical Journal and for twenty-five years Chairman of the Parliamentary Bills Committee of the British Medical Association / [Ernest Hart]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    appreciation of the services rendered by Mr. Ernest Hart as Chairman of the Executive Committee for ten years, and afterwards as President of the Society.” The Society for the Study of Inebriety, January 21 st, 1898.— “ The Society deplores the serious loss which they have sus¬ tained in the death of their esteemed Vice-President, Mr. Ernest Hart, who had all along rendered most valuable services to the various departments of the great sobriety movement, and especially to the practical helping of reformed drunkards and others by the institution of coffee taverns, to the advocacy of legislation for inebriates, and to the distribu¬ tion of knowledge on all topics which tend to the preservation of mental and bodily health. The Society also desires to present their condolences and sympathy to Mrs. Ernest Hart in her day of sorrow.” The Maccabceans, January 10 tk, 1898.—“The Committee wish to convey to Mrs. Ernest Hart the most sincere condolence of the Maccabseans on the death of their distinguished brother Maccabsean, Mr. Ernest Hart. The sense of loss is enhanced by the fact that Mr. Hart took a most keen interest in their proceedings, and only two or three years ago made a very memorable speech at one of their gatherings.” The Japan Society, January 22nd, 1898.—“ The Council of the Japan Society expresses to Mrs. Ernest Hart its sincere con¬ dolence with her upon her sad bereavement. It loses by the death of Mr. Ernest Hart a valuable coadjutor, who was ever anxious to advance the cause of Japan and its art.” SOME PERSONAL TRIBUTES AND REMINISCENCES. [From the British Medtc&l Journal.] Sir Henry Thompson writes : I send a few lines respecting my old friend, Ernest Hart, whom I knew more or less intimately throughout his life, dating from the close of his career as a student at St. George’s Hospital. Among those personal qualities which strike me as the most salient were a fund of enormous energy, for many practical purposes in¬ exhaustible; having this as a basis, he was endowed with a natural taste for logically arranging or organising, whether a subject for literary treatment or human agents for the execution of a purpose. He was remarkably fertile in resource when difficulties or perplexities lay in his path, and he had courage to overcome them when its exercise was required. Moreover, he was prompt to avail himself of new suggestions in the way of improvement from whatever quarter they proceeded, having the gift of ability to discern the value of new ideas and how to profit in some way thereby. However numerous or pressing the affairs with which he was occupied, each received due attention, and he could exercise a clear judgment respecting them and—often so difficult an accomplishment—preserved a due sense of their relative importance. Fully occupied with a crowd of engagements as he mostly was, and of late years much oppressed by weakness and ill-healtfy he would nevertheless greet th< intrusion of .an old friend with a welcome response, and detaching himself from the pressure of his surroundings would be ready at once to discuss, if required, a fresh subject thus brought before him. I deeply regret the loss of a sincere, loyal, and valued friend. Dr. Lauder Brunton writes : Many a young physician has had reason to thank Mr. Ernest Hart for a helping hand held out to him at the time of his hardest struggle, and for literary work given to him when expenses were heavy and patients were few. To all such Mr. Hart ever showed himself most sympathetic, helpful, and kind. He not only provided them with work, but encouraged them in their efforts, and cheered them by his generous appreciation of their endeavours, and by his cheery outlook for them of good fortune in the future. 8l°ss will be felt as a personal bereavement, and they will remember him always as a friend in need, and as a helper when help was sorely wanted. My-/REDERICK Greenwood, who, when editor of the Pa Mall Gazette, enlisted Mr. Hart’s services as an occasion: contributor, writes : Only two days before your editor diei I reecived from him a bright little letter, with complaint i it, to be sure, of a sharp and sadden attack of dyspepsia a grumble at being robbed thereby of the bolder charms ■ breakfast, luncheon, dinner, a hint at sleeplessness of night and a gird at his own “ridiculous despondency,” but not a word that breathed a thought of dying. The despondency itself was dyspeptic, to his belief, or it would not have been called ridiculous. Till then, apparently (but we don’t know what apprehensions a kindly nature may conceal) he was in hope of coming out into the world again, to take up the work which he always seemed to me to do with as much pleasure as vigour. The whole amount of it, the full value of it, is known to others much better than to me; but looking back upon an acquaintance of thirty years or more, I recall enough for any man to go to his grave satisfied with, both in quantity and quality. Considering the constant advance of medical knowledge, the mutation of opinion (do I come upon dangerous ground ?), the frequency with which the best minds contend against new theories which are not unsound or yield to others that are, I make bold to assume that Hart must have been in his own profession a man in a thousand to retain the confidence of such a body as the British Medical Association, for a lifetime almost, as editor of such a Journal as theirs. That, however, is but a guess, though pretty obviously a good one. But he was not all professional. In the long time that we were friends he was engaged laboriously, strenuously, and in general suc¬ cessfully, in many good works of which I could judge, and watched him in with admiration. These good works were always for somebody’s benefit or for the benefit of an aggre¬ gate of somebodies. They would have been good if done under the coldest sense of duty ; they were better—at least to eyes that saw them in the doing—because done with all the warmth of a sensitive and eagerly humane mind. In the whole they must make a long catalogue, and a most honour¬ able one, and to the list of his successes in putting things right or righting things that were wrong, several failures might be added that were as honourable as any of the triumphs. Quite a young man when he was in the full activity of his career, he was still alert and good for work to the last—and good, too, for the enjoyment of life, which a wide range of tastes ministered to and a gentle temper enhanced. This is but a brief and hasty word, and I am loth to end it abruptly, but am still less in a mind to flourish off in a parting phrase. Mr. William Adams, F.R.G.S., writes : I should be glad to be allowed to add a few words to the memory of my oldest professional friend, Ernest Hart, with whom I have been on terms of intimacy for over forty years. My acquaintance with Ernest Hart commenced in the year 1854 at the “ Grosvenor Place School of Medicine,” or “Lane’s School,” attached to St. George’s Hospital, when, at the request of Mr. (afterwards Sir) Spencer Wells I delivered a course of lectures on ortho¬ paedic surgery, and afterwards assisted Spencer Wells’s col¬ league, Mr. George Pilcher, in the surgical lectures. At this time Spencer Wells went off to Smyrna, where the British Civil Hospital was established for the wounded soldiers from the Crimea. In 1854 Ernest Hart was one of the most dis¬ tinguished pupils at Lane’s School. He was always a favourite wih his fellow students—bright, genial, and witty— and he was also a favourite with the surgical staff, who appreciated his great abilities. Mr. Timothy Holmes, who has done full justice to Ernest Hart’s great abilities and to his many-sided activity of mind, seems to have made his acquaintance, like myself, at Lane’s School, and I can only endorse every word Mr. Holmes has said. Ernest Hart re¬ mained a true friend of mine ever since 1854, and only in July or August last, at one of his elegant garden parties at Totteridge, he remarked, “ Don’t forget, Adams, that I was one of your pupils.” He was then happy and cheerful amongst his friends who have now to mourn his loss. A number of other letters have been received from members of the profession expressing their regret at learning of Mr. Hart’s death, among others from Sir James Paget, who observes, “ I know that he always worked hard and usefully and well for the general good.” Lady Russell Reynolds desires it to be said that she attended the memorial service in order to show her “ grateful remembrance of the kindness and courtesy” which Sir Russell Reynolds received “'during the memorable year of his presidency, from Mr. Ernest Hart and all members of the British Medical Association.”