ABSTRACT

This paper should perhaps be prefaced with an apology for presenting to this Association anything but a medical subject, and you are assured that such a departure from the ordinary is not taken with any degree of confidence; but as a reason for doing so I desire to say that many times during the eight years it has been my privilege to be on the roll of membership it has occurred to me that we were not getting all the value possible out of this organization. Not that I deprecate for a moment any portion of our past history, for I can testify, and I believe every member will agree, that the papers, discussions, and change of views incident to our meetings have been of great practical benefit; but these meetings, as most of them have appeared to me, have been of a rather desultory character – held without any particular object in view, and therefore not fraught with the same value that one can readily imagine would result were they convened with the distinct purpose of discussing and establishing / the very best line of practice to follow upon matters of vital importance to the interests of which we are the custodians.