Remarks at the annual meeting of the Erie County Medical Society : in relation to the formation of a society for the relief of widows and orphans of medical men / by the president, James P. White.

  • White, James P. (James Platt), 1811-1881.
Date:
1856
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks at the annual meeting of the Erie County Medical Society : in relation to the formation of a society for the relief of widows and orphans of medical men / by the president, James P. White. 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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    ^ REMARKS. In accordance with a wholesome rule of this Society, I shall claim your indulgence but for a short time, before retiring from the position to which, by your partiality, I have been called. Perhaps no greater service could be ren- dered the profession, than by pointing out the source and the manner in which may be diminished the frequency of quarrels between its members* and the acerbity of feeling thereby engendered. If in the accomplishment of this most desirable purpose we can improve the pecuniary condition of the profession as a whole, and render its different members more independent of the world, and can unite them in bonds of mutual dependence upon each other, an additional benefit will thereby be conferred. It is humbly hoped that the execution of the project to which your attention is now briefly invited, would in some degree contribute to these important ends. Preliminary to the discussion of the utility of the scheme to which your attention is invited, let us inquire into the causes of the greater frequency of differences among doctors than among the members of other professions, or among men of business. Have they a larger innate share of original sin than the rest of the human family % If not, is there anything in the study of the sciences upon which medicine is based, or in its practical exercise, cal- culated to engender hostility to mankind or foster a turbulent spirit ? Clearly the reverse. Indeed, there is little risk in making the assertion that, ordina- rily, so far as his intercourse with all other members of the community, ex- cept his fellow laborer, extends, the medical practitioner is an example of amiability, and most free from litigious inclinations. Whence then arises this evil which is truly styled the opprobrium of our profession ? Amono- the negative causes, and one to which our present remarks will be confined, may be mentioned the isolated life (so far as relates to his fellows) which necessarily results from the practice of medicine, and the infrequency