The Henson Journals

[209]

Thursday, July 13th, 1922.

I very wet day. I spent the morning in writing letters, and finishing the Lecture on "The History of the Surgery of the Brain" which Sir Charles Ballance sent me a few days since. It is rather too technical for my complete appreciation, yet I found it very interesting. Incidentally I noted a clear statement as [to] the value of vivisection:–

"Horsley was particularly qualified for surgical work on the brain of man by his long & intimate acquaintance with operations on the brain of the monkey. Any success which I myself have attained in the same field I attribute to having, with my friend the late D. W. B. Hadden, performed a number of stimulation and ablation experiments on the brain of the monkey. These clearly brought home to me that cerebral surgery, as at that time practiced, was not founded on knowledge, & that the brain should be treated by the surgeon like any other living tissue".

Clayton and I motored to Durham, where I presided at a meeting of the Board for the Training & Maintenance of the Clergy. After this business was over I picked up the Cruickshanks, & brought them to the Castle to spend a few days there. Willie Murray and his wife had arrived on a short visit. The woeful weather weighed on our spirits, & the day closed on an ill promise for the morrow. Visitors in wet weather are a problem not easy of solution.

[210]

July 13th, 1922.

Dear Sir,

On the 2nd Sunday in Advent last year (December 4th, 1921) I had the great pleasure of administering the Holy Communion too Dr McClymont, at that time Moderator of the Church of Scotland, in Durham Cathedral, following therein what has certainly been the general rule of the C. of E.

I have no reason for thinking that Dr McClymont has been confirmed, for confirmation is no part of the discipline of the Church of Scotland in which he has been reared. But I can assume with absolute security that he has been formally admitted to the Holy Communion according to the system of the Church whose membership he professes.

The rubric at the end of the "Order of Confirmation" is the domestic rule of the Church of England, & cannot be rightly regarded as of universal application. Neither the Church of Rome which practices episcopal confirmation, nor the non–episcopal churches which have none, make confirmation an essential preliminary to the Holy Communion: while it is only by a very large interpretation of language that the Eastern Churches, which anoint & communicate infants, can be said to have any confirmation at all.

I have said something on these matters in the volume, "The National Church", published a few years since by Macmillans.

Believe me, Yours very faithfully,

Herbert Dunelm;

The Rev. A. Macpherson, The Rectory, Old Meldrum, Aberdeenshire

[211]

July 13th, 1922.

Dear Sir,

If your League cares to print the sermon to which you refer in full, and will send me the proof for correction, I will send you the MS.: but you will understand that I do not care to have mere extracts printed in view of the strong convictions which are held in some quarters on the subject dealt with.

Believe me, Yours v. faithfully

Herbert Dunelm;

(Bishop of Durham)

L. H. Carter Esq.

Organiser of "the Anti–Prohibition League"

35 Piccadilly, London W.1.

The activities of "Pussyfoot" and his friends are certainly causing the lovers of liberty and liquor to cast about for allies against an attack which visibly waxes in strength and persistence. A bishop is comparatively respectable, & theoretically independent. His support will possess a special value against opponents who are accustomed to claim that they have behind them the unanimous agreement of all the morally weightiest elements in the nation. These considerations may explain the desire of the Anti–Prohibition League to publish my sermon!

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