THE CALCUTTA MEDICAL SOCIETY. The first Meeting of 1881 was held at the Medical College on Wednesday, 12th January ; Dr. Cayley presiding. Dr. Cayley read the following address :? Before resigning the office of President of the Calcutta Medical Society, which I have had the honor of holding for a great part of last year, I beg to congratulate the Society on having completed the first year of its existence. Oar Society at its commencement, like a young seedling just planted in the ground, had at first many difficulties to contend with. The soil seemed barren and ungenial, and choked up, as it were, with the debris of a tree of similar character which had previously occupied its place, and which, after flourishing for a time, had been somewhat violently uprooted. The young plant seemed at first likely to be nipped and stunted by the chill fogs and airs of contempt or indifference, and was then in danger of being withered up by the scorching blasts of controversial disputes, or swept away in the floods of violent discussions and conflicting opinions, but, thanks to the careful tending and sound judgment and forbearance of those who most actively interested themselves in its welfare, the young tree has now passed safely through these early perils, I and has surmounted the obstacles which at first threatened to destroy it, and now stands erect and vigorous, and has already sprouted forth with shoots and buds, and will, I trust, ere long spread its branches still more widely and bear abundant fruit of wisdom and science,?fruit that will aid us in our efforts towards curing disease and relieving suffering and misery. But, gentlemen, as the object of our meeting here is to occupy ourselves with medical matters, I am afraid that I am rather wandering from the point. On this occasion, however, I think I may fairly devote a few minutes to the consideration of what our Society has been doing during the past 12 months, though fully aware of the fact that we must live for the present and the future rather than for the past, and that time is too valuable a commodity to be spent in considering what has already been and gone, when we have so little to devote to what is to come. It often happens, however, that by making a retrospect of what has been accomplished, whether successfully or otherwise, we may ensure better results in future. The experience we have gained will guide us to '
future
success.
Since the Society was started we have held 12 meetings. At the first, which took place in January last year, the Officebearers were elected for a year, and a code of rales, which had previously been drafted by a Provisional Committee, was approved and confirmed. Our best thanks are due to this Committee for the very great trouble taken by the members in drawing up these rules and in all other matters connected with the starting of the Society, and I need hardly say that their's was no easy task. The few rules that were passed were, I think, most judicious ones, and have worked admirably ; and the rule excluding from discussion all subjects likely to give rise to unprofitable controversy, the decision resting with the Chairman, has answered perfectly. There are one or two minor points that, without needing any special rules, may I think be advantageously borne in mind at our future meetings. One is that when discussing a case or paper no member should speak more than once in the same evening on the same subject, and should only do so very exceptionally when the discussion is adjourned. Another is that when a specimen is exhibited, as a general thing, little or no discussion is required beyond the description and narration of the case by the exhibitor, and perhaps a few questions and explanations regarding its nature. By attention to some of these minor points we may, I think, make our meetings more business-like. These however are mere suggestions which may not meet with general approval.
62
THE INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE.
read Many papers of great value and interest have been " and discussed ; among them I may mention papers on Acute " (Edema," Epidemic Fever or "Beriberi" as the disease has been variously tei-med, by Dr. D. B. Smith, Dr. Chambers, Dr. Harvey, Dr. McLeod, Baboo Rakhal Das Bose, and Moulvi Tameez Khan Bahadur, the latter giving full details of most carefully conducted P. M. examinations of two fatal cases. These papers, with exhaustive discussions on the subject by many of the members present, elicited most valuable information, and many important facts were brought forward which will be of great value should the disease re-appear among us. There were of course many diversities of opinion regarding the nature and etiology of the disease, but such differences tend in the long run to bring out the truth. Among other interesting and important papers I may enumerate one by Baboo Lai Madub Mukerjee on " Loss of vitreous after cataract operations." Papers and cases by Dr. McLeod on " Some cases of Ovariotomy an especially valuable practical paper on "Antiseptic dressing after re" moval of scrotal tumours a Case of strangulated hernia " " cancer in a child," Case of radically cured," Medullary " Removal of a large venous aneurism Popliteal Aneurism," from the Axilla," " Removal of a large Bronchocele by operation," and many other cases illustrating a great variety of subjects. We have had papers by Baboo Avinas Chunder Bannerjea on "Cases of Hepatic Abscess."
By Baboo A. C. Kastagir on " the surgical treatment of scrotal tumours" and on " the connection between fever and cholera." By Dr. Raye on "A case of Molluscum Fibrosum." "
Carbolic Acid By Rai Kannye Lai Dey Bahadur on poisoning." Amrito Lai By Baboo Mukerjee on a Case of Necrosis of the Cricoid Cartilage." Baboo Behari Lai By Chuckerbutty on a Case of Hernia of the lung." A most instructive paper by Dr. Harvey on the Use and Abuse of Ergot in Labour." By Mr. Wallace on Tetanus. Bark of Wrightia By Baboo Rakhal Das Ghose on the Anti-dysenterica." Such papers as this on articles of Materia Medica are especially valuable to Medical Practitioners who purchase and compound their own drugs, and indeed to all who prescribe, as one knows that occasionally lamentable mistakes occur from ignorance of, or inattention to, these subjects. I have only named a few of the papers and subjects that we "
"
"
"
have heard, but we have been indebted to many other gentlemen for bringing forward papers and cases of equal interest with those I have mentioned. A variety of valuable pathological specimens have also been exhibited, and our best thanks are due to Dr. McConnell for the accurate and lucid descriptions he has given of all the specimens he has so kindly undertaken to examine and report upon. At one of our earlier meetings it was proposed that, what I may call professional ethics, the unwritten but more or less binding rules of conduct which guide us in our relations to one another and to the outside public, should occasionally be made subjects of discussion. Probably in only very exceptional cases would such matters ever come before us at our meetings, but I think I may on this occasion be permitted to offer a few suggestions bearing on matters of this nature. We all feel how important it is that we should on all occasions endeavour to uphold the honor of the liberal Profession of which we are members, and strive to keep it above the level of a mere trade and maintain its high character in our own eyes and in public esteem. There is I fear in the present day, judging from the public prints, rather a tendency to proclaim abroad the value of our medical services and the virtues of our drugs, in the same way that a tradesman advertises his meats and drinks and other wares. I am sure that this is a practice that ought to be rigidly avoided, as tending to lower the medical profession before the public, and as being certain in the long run to prove injurious to There is no doubt that in our profession, as in our interests. all others, competition is great and the struggle for existence hard, but we shall hold a higher position and find our services more highly valued the more we keep up the character of If we advertise " advice gratis," the public will our calling. hardly fail to estimate the value of our advice at our own
[February 1,
1881.
as not worth paying for. Another point that I deem worthy of consideration is that it is contrary to the whole spirit of a scientific profession, such as I consider medicine to be, to profess to have or be acquainted with secret or unknown remedies for the cure of particular diseases. All the knowledge that any of us acquire either by observation or experience should be placed freely at the disposal of the Profession at large ; and if any one discover a remedy or specific for any disease, he should let others share in the knowledge, and not keep it exclusively for his personal advantage. In this we differ from and show our superiority over the dealers in quack nostrums and the vendors of patent drugs. Each one of us should by his individual efforts help to add to the general store of medical knowledge and so increase the of the medical profession, power and improve the position and in this way he will indirectly, but with certainty, reap the in practising any profesWe all that feel too benefit himself. sion it is not only our own personal position and advantage we seek after, though these in their way are good and laudable stimulants to work, but there are beyond these far higher motives and aims, and which alone can support us in the hard uphill struggle that many of us have at one time or other to engage in ; we have the consciousness that we are doing a good work in the world ; that our efforts are all directed to the averting and alleviation of human suffering, and for this reason especially we should ever strive to raise medical science to the highest possible point and make it worthy of our life-long devotion. I now ask your attention to the work that lies before us in the future. I have noticed with some anxiety that some of our later meetings have not been so well attended as were the earlier ones. I well know that we are all busy men, and each day brings its hard round of harassing duties ; and on coming home in the evening, tired perhaps, and seeking rest, it is a struggle and requires a strong effort to turn out again to attend a meeting, but I think the effort is worth making. The success of the Society depends entirely on such efforts being made, and I beg you all to do your utmost not only to attend the meetings, but to take an active part in the proceedings. We want more papers, more cases, and more specimens, and there is not one of us who has it not in his the general store of knowpower to contribute something to ledge. These meetings are of benefit to us all in many ways. We are all members of one professional brotherhood, and have devoted our lives to the same common calling, and our meeting together in this way keeps up the feeling of friendship and fellowship among us and tends to engender mutual sympathies and to drive away misunderstandings. However much we may differ in opinion, we are all striving towards one common end, to find out and establish the truth. Besides this, at our meetings we are able as it were to take stock of our own knowledge and to learn how much our opinions are confirmed or modified by the experience of others who have perhaps seen different phases of the same disease, or have studied it under different circumstances. In this way we can combine the knowledge of others with our own and so arrive at more just and accurate conclusions. I further ask you all, gentlemen, to try and persuade your friends who have not already joined the society, now to do so. Tell them that we are all students of the same profession, and that our object is to learn ourselves and freely to impart our knowledge to others, and that all who are willing will be welcomed to join in our labour, and that the greater our numbers the greater will be our success.
standand,
I cannot conclude without asking your thanks and acto the Office-bearers, and especially to our Secretaries and Treasurer for their able management of our affairs, and above all our thanks are due to Dr. McLeod, who has laboured so energetically and indefatigably in our behalf, that I am not wrong in saying that our present success is chiefly due to his efforts. I will now end by wishing our young society long life and a prosperous future.
knowledgments
Dr. Goopta moved a vote of thanks to the President for his very interesting and instructive address, which was una-
nimously adopted.
Fkbp.ua ry 1,
CORRESPONDENCE.
1881.]
The Office-bearers for the year 1881 were ballotted for with the following result:? President. Dr.
Cayley.
Vice-Presidents. Dr. Coates.
Moulvie Tameez Khan, K. B. Secretaries. Dr. McLeod. Dr. Harvey. Treasurer. Baboo Tara Prosunno
Roy.
Executive Council. Baboo
Kanny Loll Dey, R. B. Goopta. Soorjee Coomar Surbadicary.
Dr. K. P. Baboo
Dr. E. W. Chambers. Baboo Lall Madhub Baboo
Mookerjee. Doyal Chunder Shome.
63
future
success.
Since the Society was started we have held 12 meetings. At the first, which took place in January last year, the Officebearers were elected for a year, and a code of rales, which had previously been drafted by a Provisional Committee, was approved and confirmed. Our best thanks are due to this Committee for the very great trouble taken by the members in drawing up these rules and in all other matters connected with the starting of the Society, and I need hardly say that their's was no easy task. The few rules that were passed were, I think, most judicious ones, and have worked admirably ; and the rule excluding from discussion all subjects likely to give rise to unprofitable controversy, the decision resting with the Chairman, has answered perfectly. There are one or two minor points that, without needing any special rules, may I think be advantageously borne in mind at our future meetings. One is that when discussing a case or paper no member should speak more than once in the same evening on the same subject, and should only do so very exceptionally when the discussion is adjourned. Another is that when a specimen is exhibited, as a general thing, little or no discussion is required beyond the description and narration of the case by the exhibitor, and perhaps a few questions and explanations regarding its nature. By attention to some of these minor points we may, I think, make our meetings more business-like. These however are mere suggestions which may not meet with general approval.
62
THE INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE.
read Many papers of great value and interest have been " and discussed ; among them I may mention papers on Acute " (Edema," Epidemic Fever or "Beriberi" as the disease has been variously tei-med, by Dr. D. B. Smith, Dr. Chambers, Dr. Harvey, Dr. McLeod, Baboo Rakhal Das Bose, and Moulvi Tameez Khan Bahadur, the latter giving full details of most carefully conducted P. M. examinations of two fatal cases. These papers, with exhaustive discussions on the subject by many of the members present, elicited most valuable information, and many important facts were brought forward which will be of great value should the disease re-appear among us. There were of course many diversities of opinion regarding the nature and etiology of the disease, but such differences tend in the long run to bring out the truth. Among other interesting and important papers I may enumerate one by Baboo Lai Madub Mukerjee on " Loss of vitreous after cataract operations." Papers and cases by Dr. McLeod on " Some cases of Ovariotomy an especially valuable practical paper on "Antiseptic dressing after re" moval of scrotal tumours a Case of strangulated hernia " " cancer in a child," Case of radically cured," Medullary " Removal of a large venous aneurism Popliteal Aneurism," from the Axilla," " Removal of a large Bronchocele by operation," and many other cases illustrating a great variety of subjects. We have had papers by Baboo Avinas Chunder Bannerjea on "Cases of Hepatic Abscess."
By Baboo A. C. Kastagir on " the surgical treatment of scrotal tumours" and on " the connection between fever and cholera." By Dr. Raye on "A case of Molluscum Fibrosum." "
Carbolic Acid By Rai Kannye Lai Dey Bahadur on poisoning." Amrito Lai By Baboo Mukerjee on a Case of Necrosis of the Cricoid Cartilage." Baboo Behari Lai By Chuckerbutty on a Case of Hernia of the lung." A most instructive paper by Dr. Harvey on the Use and Abuse of Ergot in Labour." By Mr. Wallace on Tetanus. Bark of Wrightia By Baboo Rakhal Das Ghose on the Anti-dysenterica." Such papers as this on articles of Materia Medica are especially valuable to Medical Practitioners who purchase and compound their own drugs, and indeed to all who prescribe, as one knows that occasionally lamentable mistakes occur from ignorance of, or inattention to, these subjects. I have only named a few of the papers and subjects that we "
"
"
"
have heard, but we have been indebted to many other gentlemen for bringing forward papers and cases of equal interest with those I have mentioned. A variety of valuable pathological specimens have also been exhibited, and our best thanks are due to Dr. McConnell for the accurate and lucid descriptions he has given of all the specimens he has so kindly undertaken to examine and report upon. At one of our earlier meetings it was proposed that, what I may call professional ethics, the unwritten but more or less binding rules of conduct which guide us in our relations to one another and to the outside public, should occasionally be made subjects of discussion. Probably in only very exceptional cases would such matters ever come before us at our meetings, but I think I may on this occasion be permitted to offer a few suggestions bearing on matters of this nature. We all feel how important it is that we should on all occasions endeavour to uphold the honor of the liberal Profession of which we are members, and strive to keep it above the level of a mere trade and maintain its high character in our own eyes and in public esteem. There is I fear in the present day, judging from the public prints, rather a tendency to proclaim abroad the value of our medical services and the virtues of our drugs, in the same way that a tradesman advertises his meats and drinks and other wares. I am sure that this is a practice that ought to be rigidly avoided, as tending to lower the medical profession before the public, and as being certain in the long run to prove injurious to There is no doubt that in our profession, as in our interests. all others, competition is great and the struggle for existence hard, but we shall hold a higher position and find our services more highly valued the more we keep up the character of If we advertise " advice gratis," the public will our calling. hardly fail to estimate the value of our advice at our own
[February 1,
1881.
as not worth paying for. Another point that I deem worthy of consideration is that it is contrary to the whole spirit of a scientific profession, such as I consider medicine to be, to profess to have or be acquainted with secret or unknown remedies for the cure of particular diseases. All the knowledge that any of us acquire either by observation or experience should be placed freely at the disposal of the Profession at large ; and if any one discover a remedy or specific for any disease, he should let others share in the knowledge, and not keep it exclusively for his personal advantage. In this we differ from and show our superiority over the dealers in quack nostrums and the vendors of patent drugs. Each one of us should by his individual efforts help to add to the general store of medical knowledge and so increase the of the medical profession, power and improve the position and in this way he will indirectly, but with certainty, reap the in practising any profesWe all that feel too benefit himself. sion it is not only our own personal position and advantage we seek after, though these in their way are good and laudable stimulants to work, but there are beyond these far higher motives and aims, and which alone can support us in the hard uphill struggle that many of us have at one time or other to engage in ; we have the consciousness that we are doing a good work in the world ; that our efforts are all directed to the averting and alleviation of human suffering, and for this reason especially we should ever strive to raise medical science to the highest possible point and make it worthy of our life-long devotion. I now ask your attention to the work that lies before us in the future. I have noticed with some anxiety that some of our later meetings have not been so well attended as were the earlier ones. I well know that we are all busy men, and each day brings its hard round of harassing duties ; and on coming home in the evening, tired perhaps, and seeking rest, it is a struggle and requires a strong effort to turn out again to attend a meeting, but I think the effort is worth making. The success of the Society depends entirely on such efforts being made, and I beg you all to do your utmost not only to attend the meetings, but to take an active part in the proceedings. We want more papers, more cases, and more specimens, and there is not one of us who has it not in his the general store of knowpower to contribute something to ledge. These meetings are of benefit to us all in many ways. We are all members of one professional brotherhood, and have devoted our lives to the same common calling, and our meeting together in this way keeps up the feeling of friendship and fellowship among us and tends to engender mutual sympathies and to drive away misunderstandings. However much we may differ in opinion, we are all striving towards one common end, to find out and establish the truth. Besides this, at our meetings we are able as it were to take stock of our own knowledge and to learn how much our opinions are confirmed or modified by the experience of others who have perhaps seen different phases of the same disease, or have studied it under different circumstances. In this way we can combine the knowledge of others with our own and so arrive at more just and accurate conclusions. I further ask you all, gentlemen, to try and persuade your friends who have not already joined the society, now to do so. Tell them that we are all students of the same profession, and that our object is to learn ourselves and freely to impart our knowledge to others, and that all who are willing will be welcomed to join in our labour, and that the greater our numbers the greater will be our success.
standand,
I cannot conclude without asking your thanks and acto the Office-bearers, and especially to our Secretaries and Treasurer for their able management of our affairs, and above all our thanks are due to Dr. McLeod, who has laboured so energetically and indefatigably in our behalf, that I am not wrong in saying that our present success is chiefly due to his efforts. I will now end by wishing our young society long life and a prosperous future.
knowledgments
Dr. Goopta moved a vote of thanks to the President for his very interesting and instructive address, which was una-
nimously adopted.
Fkbp.ua ry 1,
CORRESPONDENCE.
1881.]
The Office-bearers for the year 1881 were ballotted for with the following result:? President. Dr.
Cayley.
Vice-Presidents. Dr. Coates.
Moulvie Tameez Khan, K. B. Secretaries. Dr. McLeod. Dr. Harvey. Treasurer. Baboo Tara Prosunno
Roy.
Executive Council. Baboo
Kanny Loll Dey, R. B. Goopta. Soorjee Coomar Surbadicary.
Dr. K. P. Baboo
Dr. E. W. Chambers. Baboo Lall Madhub Baboo
Mookerjee. Doyal Chunder Shome.
63
