Scientific associations : their rise, progress, and influence : with a history of the Hunterian Society : an oration / by Henry I. Fotherby.

  • Fotherby, Henry I. (Henry Isaac)
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Scientific associations : their rise, progress, and influence : with a history of the Hunterian Society : an oration / by Henry I. Fotherby. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    institutions for the idiot, the paralytic, epileptic, the scrofulous, the lame, the blind, the deaf, the teeth tormented, the diseased in throat, lungs, hearts, uterine system, bladder, rectum, skin, and probably for others of the remaining organs; and in addition to these direct succours to human infirmities, the public health is further assisted by Social Science Associations; lectures, pamph- lets, reviews, &c., on sanitary science, and by various other means to the same end. A consideration of all this organized and associated effort, leads to the suggestion that the present period may be fairly termed the age of Humanitarian Science.* Turning, at length, from these historical details, and impressed as we all are with the value and importance of scientific insti- tutions, let us now examine a little into the exact character of the advantages such a Society as our own Hunterian presents. They are both scientific and social. In the scientific aspect, for instance, we are benefitted by the greatly extended area thus furnished, in which we can gather our facts, frame our theories, and form our conclusions upon any subject of investigation. Again, allowing that all observers are equally qualified by * In a very able paper read by Professor Leone Levi, at the last meeting of the British Association, entitled On the Progress of Learned Societies, illustrative of the Advancement of Science in the United Kingdom during the last Thirty Years, and of which paper I was not aware until this oration was in the press, he comes to the following among other conclusions—That during the last thirty years there has been a large increase in the number and membership of learned societies in the United Kingdom, a fact indicative of a decided advancement of Science. He estimates that 15 out of every 10,000 of the population are directly