A necrology of the physicians of Lowell and vicinity, 1826-1898 : prepared for the Massachusetts North District Medical Society / By David N. Patterson.

  • Patterson, D. N. (David Nelson), 1854-1908.
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A necrology of the physicians of Lowell and vicinity, 1826-1898 : prepared for the Massachusetts North District Medical Society / By David N. Patterson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    meetiug. For several years there was no formal organi- zation of physicians in this immediate Yicinity. But the old association had awakened a spirit that demanded for each the advantages to be derived from the aggregated knowledge and exiDerience of all. To meet this demand the members of the profession in this city and neighboring towns, who had largely increased in number since the organization of Lowell under a city charter in 1836, established the custom of holding occa- sional meetings at each other^s homes, for social converse, literary improvement, and the exchange of fraternal courtesies. Doubtless this suggested a more permanent relation- shij), as, after several meetings with these objects in view, a special meeting was held March 8, 1839, at which it was voted to form the Lowell Medical Association. This voluntary association continued to grow in interest and increase in number, until, five years later, a charter was granted bv the Massachusetts Medical Society for the establishment of a District Medical Society. At a meeting held in Lowell, November 2, 1841, consisting of the physicians of this city and twenty adjoining towns, it w^as voted that they organize and form themselves into a District Medical Society. At an adjourned meeting the society adopted the name of the Middlesex District Medical Society. In 1850 a slight change was made on account of the re-districting of the State. By the neAV arrangement, Middlesex County was divided into three districts, \dz.: east, north and south. This city and eighteen neighbor- ing towns were included in the north district, and thR name of the society changed to the Middlesex North Dis- trict Medical Society, which name it has since retained. From that time until now, this society has had a kal(ldosco])ic existence. The up-to-date street expres- sion, tliat '^any old thing will do, aptly describes the place of our meetings, which for several years were held in any snmll room that might at the time be vacant in the third story of the ^Mechanics Building on Dutton Street. At the period of which I Avrite, and for some years after,, there was not the hail fellow well met feelin^- which