Address : before the American Medical Association at its fourteenth annual meeting, held in the city of Chicago, Ill., on the 2d of June, 1863 / by Wilson Jewell.

  • Jewell, Wilson, 1800-1867.
Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Address : before the American Medical Association at its fourteenth annual meeting, held in the city of Chicago, Ill., on the 2d of June, 1863 / by Wilson Jewell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    Wittcnbourg student, shall enlighten the world and endure while time lasts, Surpassing all around, even as the sun, In morning splendor, shines above the stars.—E. C. Jr/DSOK. But these glorious expectations are not to be realized until Hy- giene, the science of health, upon which the entire structure of this reform is to be erected, comes to be fully understood, and its regen- erating influence appreciated; until we explore and pursue to their very sources, those multitudinous agencies, whether physical, whether moral, whether born of earth, of air, or of society, which are either openly or insidiously degenerating the human race.1 I would not, however, have you understand that I made choice of my subject from any preconceived idea that its mighty interests have been disregarded by the Association, or that, from fruitful fields, rich harvests of information have not been gathered and garnered in its Transactions, as contributions to science. On the contrary, the evidence is manifest upon the pages of its history, that from its earliest inception, measures were introduced to give it a formal recognition in the proceedings of the Convention, as a sub- ject eminently congenial to the object of the call. While it is unnecessary to conceal the historical fact that the original design, the great fundamental object that was made the prominent element for associated action, and that led eventually to the organization of the American Medical Association, was a higher standard of medical education, it should be enshrined in memory, that when depositing the corner-stone, over which has been raised a superstructure, designed to secure the honor, advance the know- ledge, and extend the usefulness of our profession,.the expediency of inscribing thereon, simultaneously with medical education, Hy- giene, the handmaid of medicine, received the unanimous approval of the Convention. Nor is it a less gratifying reminiscence, that the initiatory scien- tific reports received on the first day's meeting of the Convention in 1847, and which engaged the attention of that body, were for the enactment of uniform and efficient laws for the registration of births, marriages, and deaths, as well as for a general nomencla- ture of diseases. Both of these systems being primordial, and valuable departments of the science of hygiene, and indispensable adjuvants preparatory to an exact and comprehensive understand- 1 Ordronaux.