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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    hospitals, schools, and museums, and medical institu- tions of all kinds, are prepared for the occasion. New inventions, new methods of management, groups of interesting cases, are shown in this way, and any new surgical operation or scientific discovery can thus be brought publicly before the profession. At the last two meetings an innovation has been introduced in the shape of an exhibition of drugs, instruments, and medical books in a room adjacent to the hall of the meeting. As a convenience to visiting members this has proved satisfactory; but a more interesting form of exhibit would be a collection of all apparatus and inventions devised by members of the society. The success of the historical collection of instruments and books this year will, I think, be sufficiently great to suggest a continuance of exhibitions in which mem- bers participate. That portion of the meeting which needs life infused into it, and into which at this centen- nial period it would be most appropriate to introduce a new order of things, is the literary work of the society on the first day. Many excellent papers are annually read, but little encouragement is given to the readers to repeat the experiment. Such an exercise without an accompanying debate is a meaningless, and I might venture to add almost useless, performance. The meeting is thinly attended, and the exercises languish. Such was the condition of most society meetings in this neighborhood a few years since, but a new spirit has been infused into our Boston societies, which it is to be hoped has not been made at the expense of the parent society. The secret of success lies in the care with which the work of the meeting is cut out before- hand. Nothing should be left to chance, with all its