68 Presidential Addresses 



AT THE OPENING SESSION OF THE MILITARY 

 SURGEONS' ASSOCIATION, WASHINGTON, D. C, 

 JUNE 5, 1902 



Mr. President; Ladies and Gentlemen: 



I am glad to have the opportunity to bid welcome 

 to the members of this Association and their friends 

 to-day. The men of your Association combine two 

 professions each of which is rightfully held in high 

 honor by all capable of appreciating the real work 

 of men the profession of the soldier and the pro 

 fession of the doctor. Conditions in modern civil 

 ization tend more and more to make the average 

 life of the community one of great ease, compared 

 to what has been the case in the past. Together 

 with what advantages have come from this soften 

 ing of life and rendering it more easy there are cer 

 tain attendant disadvantages. It is a very necessary 

 thing that there should be some professions, some 

 trades, where the same demands are made now as 

 ever in the past upon the heroic qualities. Those 

 demands are made alike upon the soldier and upon 

 the doctor; and more upon those who are both 

 soldiers and doctors, upon the men who have con 

 tinually to face all the responsibility, all the risk, 

 faced by their brothers in the civilian branch of the 

 profession, and who also, in time of war, must 

 face much the same risks, often exactly the same 

 risks, that are faced by their brothers in arms whose 

 trade is to kill and not to cure ! It has been my good 

 fortune, gentlemen, to see some of your body at 



