An ophthalmic retrospect / by Freeland Fergus.

  • Fergus, A. Freeland (Andrew Freeland), 1858-1932.
Date:
[1909?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: An ophthalmic retrospect / by Freeland Fergus. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Reprinted from the “ Glasgow Medical JournalDecember, I9CW.] AN OPHTHALMIC RETROSPECT.1 By FREELAND FERGUS, M.D., F.F.P.S.G., F.R.S.E., Surgeon to the Glasgow Eye Infirmary. Gentlemen,—In the first place, allow me to convey to you my deep and respectful thanks for the honour which you have done me in electing me your Honorary President for this year. There is no one with any proper feeling who can receive a compliment of this sort without a very deep sense of gratitude to the gentlemen who have conferred it upon him. When a man is thus singled out by confreres, to many of whom he is personally unknown, there naturally arise one or two thoughts in his mind—some of them agreeable, others of a more mixed nature. Thus it must be obvious to him, however much he may wish to shut his eyes to the fact, that he is amongst the senior members of the profession, for such honours are not bestowed upon those who are young in years. It is an indication to the recipient that years are passing, or rather that they have passed in considerable numbers, and that he cannot much longer expect to have such vigour as he may hitherto have enjoyed. But with this thought there comes the opposite and somewhat consoling one, that although the years that have gone may to himself have been in many ways unsatisfactory, although he may look back upon the time that is past as one that might have been spent to better purpose, still, that his work has been such as at anyrate to secure the kindly regard of colleagues well qualified to judge, and that, however unsatisfactory he may have been to himself, he retains the good opinion of many gentlemen whom he respects. The chief difficulty which I have had in accepting this position is to select a suitable subject for an address, for, to tell the truth, I would much rather listen than speak. The science of medicine has changed, and is changing so 1 Address delivered to the Greenock and District Faculty of Medicine, 21st October, 1909.