Presidential address, American Surgical Association, Albany meeting, June 3, 1902 / by De Forest Willard.

  • Willard, De Forest, 1846-1910.
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Presidential address, American Surgical Association, Albany meeting, June 3, 1902 / by De Forest Willard. 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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    desire in our Fellowship cannot be admitted on account of the lack of room. To open the doors wide to an unlimited number would greatly lessen the value of Fellowship in the Association, both to the present members and to those desiring to be ad- mitted. The Surgical Section of the American Medical Association is a body which is large enough to include all the worthy surgeons of the United States, and it should be our purpose to strengthen and help this organization in its most valuable career. It is a force of great power in bringing together old and young, ex- perienced and inexperienced, from every State in the Union, and gives them an opportunity to show their qualifications and fitness for the more limited Association. An unlimited number would also ruin our scientific work by increasing the number of papers beyond the proper limit, and seriously interfere with the discussions which are so important a part of our proceedings. We have already experienced the disadvantage of an overcrowded programme, and I trust that the next Committee on Annual Meeting will rigidly enforce the presentation of short papers, condensed and abstracted, so that only the kernel shall be given to us, and in such form that time will be given for each Fellow to clearly and succinctly express his opinion, if he so desires. We are placing on trial this year a new plan : the furnishing of proofs in advance of some of the papers to be presented. The committee believe that this method if properly carried out will be a valuable advance, and trust that all of you will be so satisfied with the result of the experiment that the practice will next year become a general one. With the paper in full already in the hands of the Fellows, the essayist will require but a short time in which to present the principal points of his paper, and time for discussion will be greatly increased. One word in regard to our Transactions : it is impossible for the Committee on Publication and our hard-worked Recorder to issue such a volume promptly, as we all agree it should be, unless the Fellows at the time of the meeting have their papers fully completed and presented in duplicate, so that if published in a journal there need be no delay in putting them in type.