The plans and purposes of the Johns Hopkins Hospital : an address delivered at the opening of the Hospital, May 7, 1889 / by John S. Billings.

  • Billings, John S. (John Shaw), 1838-1913.
Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The plans and purposes of the Johns Hopkins Hospital : an address delivered at the opening of the Hospital, May 7, 1889 / by John S. Billings. 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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    made to select and engage individual members of the hospital staff until quite recently ; but there was, never- theless, a tolerably definite conception as to the ideas, mode of work, character, and wants of those who are to constitute this staff, and when the time came for select- ing, it was made by this standard. On the philanthropic, social, and religious aspects of this great trust I do not propose to touch, but I wish to say a very few words of the hopes and wishes of scien- tific men and physicians with regard to it. From the time of the first announcement of the Hopkins bequests to the present, these men, all over the world, have been keenly interested in the plans and methods adopted in carrying them out. Whenever and wherever the prob- lems of higher medical education have been discussed within the last ten years, there has been speculation as to the probable course of the Johns Hopkins medical department, and the influence it would have upon the standard. 1 may even say that some of this influence has been exerted in advance, has been discounted, as it were, for the plans of this hospital have stimulated changes in some of our best medical schools, and have been copied with more or less modification in some of our latest hospitals. What is it, then, that the physicians want ? Is it more physicians, more family practitioners, more surgeons, more specialists ? Not at all. They know very well that there is no danger that the supply will not be equal to the demand; when they become overburdened with practice they do not at present find it difficult to obtain assistants; they have no fear lest the seventy or eighty medical schools of this country should fail to produce a sufficient number of medical practitioners to meet the wants of our increasing population ; and they know also that the medical schools of Great Britain and Germany are sending to us quite as much of their product as we can