ABSTRACT
The British Medical Association (BMA) was founded in worcester by Charles Hastings on 19 July 1832, and 1982 was therefore its sesquicentenary. The presidency of the BMA is a titular role and theoretically at least it is completely apolitical. On the 14 December the BMA Council gave a formal dinner attended by the Prince of Wales, who proposed the traditional toast, 'The Common Health', and The Times published a long extract from it. He made a great plea for unorthodox medicine and pleaded doctors to treat disorders of the whole person, involving not only the patient's body but his mind, his self-image, his dependence on physical and social environment, as well as his relation to the cosmos. The BMA set up a conference to discuss the problem, but before the meeting the Chairman of the Overseas Doctors Association, Dr. Karim Admani, told a journalist that the conference was mere 'window-dressing'.
