Medical association

“ What, then, can hinder us from devoting ourselves to the rational, the scientific investigations which it is the object of our Association to institute? Shall we say that we have no leisure for these pursuits? that the practice of our profession and the cares of life, too much engross our attention for us to engage in so useful an exercise as this which I am proposing to you? ”

“ An association which, I trust, is destined to exercise no inconsiderable influence on the future progress of medical science. Feeling, as I have long done, the disadvantages under which the prosecutors of medicine, resident in English provincial towns have laboured, in consequence of the want of any system of co-operation, by which their separate exertions, for the promotion of our knowledge of the healing art, may be so united as to render them more influential, and more extensively useful ”

“ When I see assembled around me some of the brightest ornaments of our profession; and when I call to mind the fact that, in addition to those now present, our association already numbers amongst its future members, a large proportion of provincial physicians and surgeons, who are, and have been, zealous and successful cultivators of our science; whose wishes, moreover, for the success of the association, are ardent and strong ”

“ SINCE the publication of the preceding volume of the Transactions, the Association has been deprived, by a premature death, of a member whose contributions would, in all probability, frequently have added value to these pages; a physician whose learning, experience, and never-ceasing ardour for knowledge, alike fitted him for promoting some of the best designs contemplated at the foundation of this society. ”

“ That great and numerous obstacles," to use the language of a learned author, in an excellent article in the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, " exist, to a general medical topography of this or any other country, we are most ready to admit; but, we have little hesitation in saying, hat the greatest of all is to be found in the apathy of the resident medical men;, from whose cordial co-operation alone any thing of the kind can be expected. Any voluminous work, whether systematic or empirical, must, unavoidably, contain much useless, and some erroneous, matter. ”

“ At a period when pathological research is lending its aid in investigating the appearances of disease in every part of the body, and many nice distinctions in diagnosis are aimed at, which are better calculated for nosological than practical purposes, it seems to me not a little extraordinary, that so few have cultivated that most important branch of medicine, the study of the diseases of children. ”

“ And it is gratifying to find, every where, that the increased attention of the profession to the effects of management, and of medicine, on the manifold circumstances of children, in health and disease, has already reaped a rich harvest of reward, in the decreased mortality at that tender age. ”

“ It is a subject not unbecoming the highest attainments, to increase the stock of medical knowledge in that branch of our art. So important, indeed, to society, is the successful treatment of infantile diseases, that happy shall I be, if any effort of mine shall awaken attention to this hitherto neglected department of medicine. ”

“ In reflecting on the state of medical science, and on the aid which it has derived from the opportunities of observation afforded by congregating the sick in hospitals, it has often struck us with surprise, that so little should be known of the many interesting cases that must have occurred in provincial hospitals. If, from the establishment of these institutions, faithful records of the valuable cases that have occurred in them had been handed down to us, our present limited knowledge of morbid anatomy, the only correct elucidator of disease, would have been greatly extended. ”

“ In every way, it is kept in advance of the age. The staff of physicians and nurses spare no pains to make the visit of every one pleasant as well as beneficial in the highest degree. I would urge all sufferers afflicted as I was, or with any chronic disease, to avail themselves, without delay, of the skillful treatment to be obtained of the specialists of the World's Dispensary Medical Association, for I am confident that they will receive all the benefit that can be obtained from medical or surgical treatment and care. ”

“ Opinions differ widely as to the evils and remedies, but few are found to commend the existing state of things. This subject is closely connected with the advancement of science, for, if the profession were constituted as it ought to be, and as reason and sound principles dictate, the harmony that would be thus established among the several departments, could not fail to prove a direct means of their co-operating more cordially and efficiently in extending the science and improving the practice. ”

“ Your presence here this day, stamps with your approval the general principle which is involved in our society, and shews that at any rate, the founders of this institution did not make a wrong estimate of the desire, which exists amongst provincial medical practitioners, to advance medical science, and to promote among themselves that harmony and social feeling, which ought ever to characterise a liberal profession. ”

“ It can hardly be but that the modes of investigating disease ordinarily followed, labour under some radical errors or defects, else the researches of ages, pursued, as they have been, with exemplary diligence, and, in many splendid instances, by minds of the first order of intellect, must, ere this, have rendered our knowledge of the nature and treatment of disease more certain and more complete. ”

“ The benefits which arise from the association of men, for the advancement of general science, have been long felt and acknowledged. Witness, more especially, the recent establishment of the “ British Association for the advancement of Science, ” in which are enrolled the names of scientific men from all parts of Great Britain; a vast proportion of whom assembled together at their late meeting at Oxford. We may, therefore, infer, that the desire for such a combination of forces in the Medical Profession, though dormant, has existed. ”

“ When it is considered, too, how many records of a similar kind must, at the death of each observant practitioner, share the same fate; how many designs are left unfinished; how many valuable thoughts pursued a little way and lost; we see a strong additional recommendation thus afforded, of every kind of meeting and society of medical practitioners, either local, or, as in this great Association, more general, by which the isolated knowledge of many minds may be concentrated, proved by multiplied comparisons, and so classified as to advance the science of medicine more rapidly. ”

“ Is it not obvious that there should be a staff of medical officers and orderlies, detached altogether from any association with the treatment of disease, who should devote themselves entirely to the problem of prevention? ”

“ WORLD'S DISPENSARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, Buffalo, N.Y.:
Mrs. Inman.
Gentlemen—I began taking "Favorite Prescription" about a year ago. For years I have suffered with falling and ulceration of the womb, but to-day, I am enjoying perfect health.
I took four bottles of the "Prescription" and two of the "Golden Medical Discovery." Every lady suffering from female weakness should try the "Prescription" and "Golden Medical Discovery." ”

“ The advancement of medico-legal science, to which it is proposed that the labours of the Association shall be directed, is of the highest importance. The superiority of our continental brethren over British medical men, in their knowledge of forensic medicine, has been long painfully felt by those who are emulous of their country's fame. ”

“ In this respect, the fate of the young physician is one of peculiar difficulty and mortification. Through the revolution which the profession has, within the last half century, undergone, he is superseded in the treatment of all the more simple and ordinary diseases, by the general practitioner. His office is become chiefly that of consulting practitioner, to be referred to, when disease becomes intractable, or the more immediate attendant deems it expedient to divide the responsibility ”

“ To this end it is also of immense importance, that, as a profession, we should maintain a dignified attitude before the world; for, if we turn our attention to the members of the medical profession themselves, and observe the spirit of misrule and confusion with which some of them are actuated, and the attempts that have been made, and are making, in the metropolis, to bring about feelings of hostility between the cultivators of the different branches of medicine, we cannot but feel that this is the time in which the friends of peace and harmony should declare themselves. ”

“ Florid looks, energy of frame, buoyancy of spirits, are no criterion, and may be deceptive, for all these may co-exist for a time with a state of constitution, which, if not amounting to disease, is fast approaching it; a deeper scrutiny is necessary for verifying the alleged health which such persons are supposed to enjoy. ”

“ With these funds physicians are employed and hospitalization procured on behalf of members and their dependents. The fact that it is cooperative, and procures service and facilities on behalf of its members only, does not remove its activities from the sphere of business. ”

“ While the association embraces in its designs the whole range of medical science, it is to the improvement and diffusion of practical knowledge its efforts will be more especially directed, this being the great end for which the science exists. ”

“ But there may be those who, though they allow the scheme of an association, for the advancement of medical science in the provinces, to be excellent in itself, do not admit that it can ever be made practically available to the furtherance of science, owing to the dearth of willing labourers to cultivate the new ground, which we are about to lay open. ”

“ In determining the treatment of diseases, no mode can have less to recommend it than that which adapts the remedy according to the name of the disease. And yet it is very prevalent; even intelligent practitioners being sedulous to ascertain from medical records, what course of treatment has most generally succeeded, in order to apply it in some particular instance. ”

“ The Association referred to represents the medical profession of America, for it is composed of delegates, and only of delegates, from every regularly organized hospital, medical society, and medical college throughout the land, its members being, therefore, almost all of them gentlemen advanced in years, of extended experience, and of acknowledged reputation. ”

“ In this he sought not merely the benefit of the institution, but, with the enlarged and enlightened benevolence which characterised all his designs, he aimed at promoting the well being of the whole community. Knowing how greatly the welfare of the community is dependent on the competency of their medical attendants ”

“ Such medical testimony must be convincing of their efficacy as well as conveying the satisfactory assurance of their freedom from any medicine in the slightest degree injurious to the constitution, Medical Men being well aware of the deleterious effects of many preparations, which in Pulmonary Affections do but mask the symptoms for a time, and afford only temporary relief, while perhaps the constitutional disease is aggravated, or at least unsubdued. ”

“ Medical Ethics, also, will claim some attention from an Association like ours. It is strange that, with the exception of a few meagre essays, no attempt has been made to establish a code for the guidance of those who need such direction. In a well organized profession, there could be no difficulty in adapting to its exigencies the doctrines of general Ethics, the principles of which exist in every well governed mind, and are identical in all circumstances, however variously they may be applied. ”

“ In connection with a large private and hospital practice he was also an active and influential member of many of the most important national societies; a charter member of the American Laryngological Association in 1878 and its president in 1887 ”

“ It has fallen to the lot of the humble individual who is now addressing you, to communicate, either personally or by letter, with a very large proportion of physicians, surgeons, and general practitioners, resident in different provincial towns ”

“ We employ more and better Medical and Surgical Specialists in our Invalids' Hotel and Surgical Institute than any similar Association, company, or individual, and actually have more capital invested. We have a thoroughly qualified and eminent Specialist for every disease that we treat. We treat more cases, and absolutely cure more patients than any similar institution in America. ”

“ He was president of the section of psychological medicine and nervous diseases of the Ninth International Congress, held in Washington in 1887, and in 1892 was elected the first president of the American Medico-Psychological Association, formerly the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane. ”

“ In 1903 he was Vice-President of the Pathology Section at the meeting of the British Medical Association at Swansea. In his youth he was a fine athlete, and he rowed in the College eights and fours. He was a keen yachtsman and golfer, and loved a game of billiards. ”

“ For this reason, certain rules have been established by the medical profession, which experience has taught are necessary in order to preserve the health of the community when such diseases are prevalent. ”