Paper read before the Birmingham and Midland counties branch of the British Medical Association, the Midland Medical, the Oldham Medical, and the Devon and Exeter Medico-Chirurgical Societies / by M. Armand Ruffder.

  • Ruffer, Marc Armand, 1859-1917.
Date:
[©189?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Paper read before the Birmingham and Midland counties branch of the British Medical Association, the Midland Medical, the Oldham Medical, and the Devon and Exeter Medico-Chirurgical Societies / by M. Armand Ruffder. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    PAPER READ BEFORE THE BIRMINGHAM AND MIDLAND COUNTIES BRANCH OF THE BRITISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, THE MIDLAND MEDICAL, THE OLDHAM MEDICAL, AND THE DEVON AND EXETER MEDICO- CHIRURGICAL SOCIETIES, BY M. Armand Ruffer, M.x\., M.D. (Oxon), Honorary Secretary to the Institute, c Gentlemen,—In the first place, I have to thank the President of the Society for giving me the opportunity of coming before you to-night as the representative of the Council of the British Institute of Preventive Medicine, in order to explain, to the best of my ability, the objects of this Institute. In the second place, I must thank all those who have come here to-night to meet me for their kindness in attending, and, in return, I can only say that I will try and be as short as possible, and not detain them a moment longer than I can help. I should have wished tliat some more influential member of our Council could have addressed you to-night, but, in their absence, I hope you will put up with a less known member, and grant me your attention for a few minutes. The Institute was born, so to speak, on July ist, 1889, when the late Lord Mayor, Sir James Whitehead, convened a meeting at the Mansion House “ in order to raise a sum of money to be presented to M. Pasteur; ” and another sum for sending poor people bitten by rabid animals to be treated by that gentleman. You may perhaps remember that both objects for which this fund was raised have been attained, for in November of the same year the Committee forwarded ;^2,ooo to M. Pasteur, together with the auto- graph of our Chairman, thanking M. Pasteur for the kindness he had extended to over two hundred English patients bitten by rabid animals, whom he had inoculated gratuitously ; and, ever since, all the patients who have applied to the Mansion House Fund, and who were unable to pay their journeys to Paris, have been helped and sent by us to that city. In November, 1889, the Committee decided that it would be well to establish in England an institute for the special study of bacteriology and preventive medicine, similar, to some extent, to the institutes already existing in Paris, Berlin and .St. Petersburg. 1 suppose what I first have to explain is—What is the work which will be carried out in this establishment, and what is the good of such