1881.] 



President's Address. 



55 



year met in London, stands conspicuous. The work of that meeting- 

 showed that the study of medicine by the real workers is, in every 

 part, even the most practical, pursued in a thoroughly scientific spirit ; 

 that facts are industriously collected, and patiently grouped and com- 

 pared ; and that conclusions are, if sometimes hastily drawn, yet very 

 cautiously accepted. And there was ample evidence that help, whether 

 in apparatus or in knowledge, is eagerly accepted from all the other 

 sciences whether their range be far from, or near to, the biological. In 

 short, in the opinion of those best qualified to form a judgment, it is 

 not too much to say that the whole tone of the proceedings of the 

 Congress, though chiefly concerned with practical questions, was, in 

 the best sense, even in the sense which the Royal Society would give 

 to the term, scientific. 



Several of the societies meeting annually, or at longer periods, have 

 organisations which, during the intervals between two successive 

 meetings, do useful work. But in all cases the meetings form the 

 most prominent, if not the most important feature of their life ; and, 

 speaking particularly of the meetings themselves, the question has 

 more than once been raised whether they continue to justify the efforts 

 necessary to bring them about. It has been argued that, so many are 

 the scientific periodicals in every civilised country, that all the papers 

 of importance communicated to the meetings would under any cir- 

 cumstances be published in some place or other. Again, it has been 

 urged that, so numerous are the centres of science, so many the means 

 of communication both between places and between persons, that the 

 necessity for these gatherings has, in the natural course of events, 

 become superseded. The time which such meetings and the prepara- 

 tion for them involve, and the trouble which they entail on men already 

 burdened with much work, have also been pleaded on the same side, 

 and objections have been taken on the ground of the useless and 

 irrelevant matter which is too apt to crop up on these occasions. 

 These arguments are certainly not without weight ; but there is still 

 another side to the question. It is, indeed, quite probable that all the 

 more important papers would be published even if the meetings never 

 took place at all. But at these meetings there are usually a number 

 of communications, many, but not all, of local origin, the production of 

 which has been stimulated by the meeting itself ; and a fair number 

 of these may be reckoned on the side of gain. Again, it is true that 

 the original idua of a parade or march past of science, valuable enough 

 when the provinces heard or saw little of science, has become less 

 important now that provincial centres are to be found in almost every 

 large town in the country. Nevertheless, the mere presence of some 

 of the leading men stimulates dormant powers and encourages rising 

 aspirations ; and this perhaps all the more the case for the very 

 reason that science and scientific names are no longer unknown. That 



