32 CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE This report, as in previous cases, has been communicated to the Under Secretary for the information of his Grace the Lord Lieutenant.
By Order of the Board, To Dr.
Brodie, Inspector, Galway.
(signed) £.
Banks,
Secretary.
— No.
72.
—
(No.
11,548—75.)
Extract from Minutes of Proceedings of the Board of Guardians on 29th May 1875.
Read letter from Dr.
Leonard, dated 28th May 1875, drawing attention to the over¬ crowded state of the small-pox hospital in Athenry.
The Board having taken this matter into consideration, Dr.
Brodie recommended that Mr.
Irvine be at once communicated with, and requested to take in hand the fitting up of the out-office as an auxiliary ; he also stated the great objection to the present manner of conveying the patients to hospital in a donkey-cart, and suggested the advisability of procuring a horse for the covered car.
The Board approved of the foregoing.
The clerk to write to-night to Mr.
Irvine, urging his acceptance of a contract for executing the necessary repairs to the out-office, and that the sum to be allowed him would be left to the decision of Major Lopdell and Mr.
B.
R.
P.
Persse.
Dr.
Leonard, with the assistance of relieving officer Lally, to make inquiries in Athenry and its neighbourhood, andnegociate the purchase of a horse for the covered car, and use same in future instead of the donkey and cart.
— No.
73.
—
(No.
12,597—75.)
Report from Dr.
Brodie to the Local Government Board.
Gentlemen, Galway, 13 June 1875.
There was a large attendance of guardians at the weekly meeting held on yebterday the 12th instant; Lord Dunsandle in the chair.
The cause of the meeting being better attended than ordinary was the notice given by Major Daly on the 29th ultimo, that he would move on the 12th of June that Dr.
Leonard's salary be increased, and accordingly when the questions appeared on the " business paper
" for consideration, he moved " that Dr.
Leonard's salary be increased by 100 I.
in consideration of the onerous and responsible duties he has to perform attending on the present small-pox hospital in Athenry, as well as the several cases that had occurred outside, the increase to be for one year from 1st March 1875 to 1st March 1876."
The motion was seconded by P.
Blake, Esq.,
and passed without one dissentient voice.
In passing this resolution for an increase to Dr.
Leonard's salary of 1001, for one year from 1st March 1875 to 1st March 1876, the guardians appeared to have taken this course as an act of justice, and of making some recompense for the loss sustained by him in his private capacity^ as physician and surgeon, and his public position as medical officer of a dispensary district and attendant upon a small-pox hospital.
In the first instance, his private practice was altogether nought when it had become known that he was attending upon and in close proximity to patients labouring under this dreadful disease; the pecuniary loss thus suffered by Dr.
Leonard must have been considerable, as his former patients had to request the attendance of a medical practitioner from Loughrea or Galway.
As a public officer, he had to devote many weary hours to the several and oft-repeated calls made upon him day and night, and more than one member of the Board referred to circumstances which had come under his own immediate notice, in which Dr.
Leonard performed his onerous and responsible duties during this trying-ordeal with care and atten¬ tion to the sick poor under his charge, and a self-denial of comfort, or any sort of pleasure or relaxation on his own part, joined to the fact that Dr.
Leonard, in his domestic affairs, had endured his own share of trouble and loss in the case of a member of his family who had been for weeks suffering from the disease contracted, as is supposed, through the agency of the doctor attending small-pox cases outside, and thus bringing bhe disease into his own household.
All these circumstances were fully weighed by the Board, and they considered that only an act of justice was being done, in thus granting him a liberal addition to his salary for one year, and they accordingly requested the Local Govern¬ ment Board's sanction to their acts on this occasion.
Relieving officer Lally having had a number of cases entered upon his application and
report
