Medical societies : their organization and the nature of their work / by J. Collins Warren.

  • Warren, John Collins, 1842-1927.
Date:
1881
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical societies : their organization and the nature of their work / by J. Collins Warren. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    ditions of the society. The semi-annual and the quarterly are types of periodical literature which are gradually becoming extinct. Science moves too rapidly, and is too impatient of delay, to use such ponderous vehicles. A vigorous and progressive as- sociation like our own is hardly keeping up with the times in contenting itself with receiving the work of others at second hand and at long intervals, while it allows its own to be hidden in the volumes of Trans- actions. The same arguments which have been so frequently urged in behalf of a weekly journal for our national association are equally true of each state so- ciety. Were a group of States like those of New Eng- land to unite upon a common medium of inter-com- munication, the stimulus to society work of all kinds would be immense, and the advantages of cooperation would bring with it great power. It will be a glorious day, both for medical societies and medical literature, in this country, when this principle becomes recog- nized. There is one more topic to which it might be ap- propriate to allude on such an occasion as this, and that is the manner of conducting our annual meet- ings. In former years one day was considered suffi- cient to accomplish all the work the society had to do ; but since 1866 a second has been added. It is a frequent criticism that annual gatherings of med- ical men rarely accomplish any really useful scientific work, being chiefly of a social character. So far as the strictly literary work of the meetings is con- cerned this is frequently true, but the metropolis at which the gatherings are held becomes for the time being a medical exhibition on a large scale. The 9