Address delivered at the semi-centennial celebration of the Oneida County Medical Society : held at Utica, Thesday, July 8, 1856 / by D.G. Thomas.

  • Thomas, D. G. (Daniel Golden), 1806-1880.
Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Address delivered at the semi-centennial celebration of the Oneida County Medical Society : held at Utica, Thesday, July 8, 1856 / by D.G. Thomas. 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.)

    15/28
    of medical men have an inadequate idea of its relations, and also of their own duties. Some of the reasons which have operated against the pros- perity of this Society, lies heavily at the door of its officers. The Presidents have not discharged their duties in notifying young men who have settled among us, as prescribed by the law. The payment of the annual tax has not been enforced by its Treasurers. A general impression has prevailed, that now the licensed practitioner and the empiric, stood precisely on the same footing. Those who have been influenced by such considerations, have placed no value on the benefits of the Association to themselves, to their profession, or to society at large. Many of the physicians of this county have received their Diplomas from this Society. By the corporate power which was born with this law, and which it still retains, they have been admitted within the pale of an honorable profession ; have assumed its responsible obligations, and, by an oath, bound themselves to the faithful discharge of its high trusts- How many of these have turned their backs with cold indif- ference and willful neglect, upon all its calls on them for sym- pathy and support? How many have been willing to see its interests sacrificed ; its existence destroyed, if it would save them from the necessary labor of its preservation. But it is not those who have attained distinction among professional men, who seek shelter in exclusiveness. It is those who con- tent themselves with the popular applause of the crowd about them ; who practice medicine as a trade for the small rewards that can be wrung from its ceaseless toils; who are unwilling to make known to their brethren either how much or how little they have added to the common fund of knowledge. Men who have never written a dissertation or reported a case for its benefit are the men, who have never found its meetings interesting. The reason they have no interest is because they have made none. If they had employed their leisure moments collecting materials and preparing them lor the benefit of medical .science, then ihey would have purchased their true