14 • THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 



DELIVERED BY T. W. REYNOLDS, M. D., PRESIDENT, 

 NOV. 17TH, 1898. 



Ladies and Gentlemen : 



I would be very lacking indeed if I did not appreciate the 

 honourable position in which I now find myself, that of President of 

 this distinguished body, a position which has been held by fourteen 

 others, all men who have done themselves and the Association 

 credit by the manner in which they discharged the duties devolving 

 upon them. Let me, therefore, before proceeding further, return my 

 sincere thanks to my colleagues, the members of this Association, 

 for their kindness in placing me in such a distinguished company. 

 At the same time I can assure you all that while I appreciate the 

 honour of this office, I am equally aware of the responsibilities 

 attached, and particularly that of preparing a fitting introductory 

 address. 



This address, though at its outset imposes a very pleasing duty, 

 that of welcoming our visitors, for we must admit that we cannot 

 claim all present as members, much as we would like otherwise to 

 do ; however, we are always ready, on the one hand, to admit new 

 members to our ranks, while, on the other, we are ever pleased to 

 see visitors at any of our meetings. 



I might take this opportunity of stating that we have different 

 classes of meetings, each intended for special purposes. Of these 

 we have, first, our open meeting, which, of late years, like to-night, 

 has taken the form of a social function, in order to bring the mem- 

 bers and visitors together in an informal way, while the latter are 

 given some idea of what the Association and its members are really 

 trying to accomplish, and of what their quarters contain. The 

 second class of meetings are the general meetings, held at least once 

 a month during the winter, for the transaction of business and the 

 reading of papers. The third class are the section meetings for work 

 proper, but I shall have more to say later on of both of these classes. 



Let us all now, both members and visitors, consider the objects 

 of the Association, by way of affording information to our visitors, 



