 How life has changed…
…and an intriguing autobiography of a physician in psychological medicine.
Excerpt from The Unquiet Mind, William Sargant
The year is 1929, ‘…at one period my income from deaths, inquests and insurance reports mysteriously dried up, and being literally down to my last sixpence, I seriously considered abandoning a hospital career: the only way to remain solvent seemed to be locum work in prvate practice for a while. That evening I visited a girlfriend of mine with an architect father. He guessed from my face that something had gone wrong. ‘Tell me the worst,’ he said, and felt greatly relieved to hear that it was a mere lack of cash. When I told him that I might have to resign from St Mary’s although already House-Surgeon to the Surgical Unit, with the promise of also becoming House-Physician to the Medical Professorial Unit, he answered: ‘Don’t be so foolish!’ And pressing ten pounds into my not unwilling hand, sent me back to fight on. My first thought was to collect three bundles of clean linen which the laundry was refusing to hand over unless I paid. The rest of the money carried me through to the end of my term as House-Surgeon. Then, after spending three days at home revising my medical work, I took my final MB at Cambridge, which left me a month before my next job as House-Physician fell due.
From Cambridge I hurried to the old Paddington Infirmary, already renamed Paddington Hospital, and worked there for a month as a locum, earning £1 a day, which meant that I could go back to St Mary’s with £30, and live on it for six months.’ | 
How life has changed…
…and an intriguing autobiography of a physician in psychological medicine.
Excerpt from The Unquiet Mind, William Sargant
The year is 1929, ‘…at one period my income from deaths, inquests and insurance reports mysteriously dried up, and being literally down to my last sixpence, I seriously considered abandoning a hospital career: the only way to remain solvent seemed to be locum work in prvate practice for a while. That evening I visited a girlfriend of mine with an architect father. He guessed from my face that something had gone wrong. ‘Tell me the worst,’ he said, and felt greatly relieved to hear that it was a mere lack of cash. When I told him that I might have to resign from St Mary’s although already House-Surgeon to the Surgical Unit, with the promise of also becoming House-Physician to the Medical Professorial Unit, he answered: ‘Don’t be so foolish!’ And pressing ten pounds into my not unwilling hand, sent me back to fight on. My first thought was to collect three bundles of clean linen which the laundry was refusing to hand over unless I paid. The rest of the money carried me through to the end of my term as House-Surgeon. Then, after spending three days at home revising my medical work, I took my final MB at Cambridge, which left me a month before my next job as House-Physician fell due.
From Cambridge I hurried to the old Paddington Infirmary, already renamed Paddington Hospital, and worked there for a month as a locum, earning £1 a day, which meant that I could go back to St Mary’s with £30, and live on it for six months.’
4 months ago / 2 notes
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