156 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[August 19,1871. 
in regard to tliat which, is the question of questions 
to the profession,—the all-important subject of medical 
reform. Twelve months ago a session of Parliament 
was hoped for in which this subject would have occupied 
no small portion of the time of our legislators, and pre¬ 
parations were made for the struggle. But the late 
session had been singularly unproductive in reference to 
general questions, and it was not matter for surprise that 
much attention had not been given to medical reform, a 
subject interesting to, and understood by, few beyond 
those who had a practical experience of its necessity. 
Questions of the most important character had been lost 
sight of in the din of contending armies across the 
Channel; but, in the meantime, leisure had been gained 
to analyse and improve upon the measures of reform 
proposed during the last twelve months. No measure of 
reform, they could boldly say, would ever be acceptable 
to the profession which did not embrace the two propo¬ 
sitions, (1) the single portal by which all shall enter the 
profession, and (2) the radical and thorough reform of 
the Medical Council. He then introduced his successor, 
Dr. John Whipple, in whose favour he vacated the 
presidential chair. 
The President-elect then proceeded to deliver his 
inaugural address, in which he deviated from the usual 
routine of discussing subjects of solely professional inter¬ 
est, and gave some interesting details in the history of 
Plymouth, the town in which they were assembled. He 
justified this course on the ground that professional expe¬ 
rience abundantly testified that the.mind could not bear 
too heavy a strain, or digest at once more than a fair 
proportion of substantial or stimulating diet. He wished 
to send them forth to the details and duties of their re¬ 
spective sections with their digestive faculties unwearied 
and their mental grasp unimpaired by any homoeopathic 
treatment of his own. If it were true that the science 
of agriculture depended much upon a due application of 
the rotation of crops, it would not be far wrong to adopt 
a similar system to an analogous field—the human mind. 
In both cases the same condition of an ultimate return 
was a judicious appreciation of, and a proper deference 
to, those elements which might not inaptly be termed 
the surface and hidden depths of their respective systems. 
As with the field, so with the mind—a summer’s fallow 
may have its advantages, and the crop of sprightly tares 
turn out no mean preparation for an ample yield of 
weightier cereals. 
Dr. Si3son proposed, and Dr. Radclyffe Hall se¬ 
conded, a vote of thanks to the retiring President, which 
was passed unanimously, and it was decided that Dr. 
Charlton should be enrolled among the permanent Vice- 
Presidents of the Society. 
The Hastings Medal for 1870, which had been awarded 
to Dr. J. M. Fothergill for an essay on “ Digitalis, its 
Mode of Action and its Use,” was then presented to that 
gentleman, amid general cheering. 
The Report was next read, from which we extract the 
following paragraphs:— 
4 ‘ At the Annual Meeting in 1870, there were on the 
list -1251 members, of whom Go have died, 94 resigned, 
and 106 have been removed for non-payment of sub¬ 
scriptions. 411 new members have been elected this 
year. There are now 4403 on the books. 
‘‘ ine joint Committee on State Medicine will present 
a report—a report which deals closely with recommen¬ 
dations ot the Royal Sanitary Commission, and the 
principles that should regulate the future sanitary ad¬ 
ministration of the kingdom, subjects full of interest both 
to the medical profession and the public; and which will 
doubtless occupy a prominent place in the deliberations 
of the meeting. 
“ The Therapeutical Committee have been at work 
during the year; they have performed a large number 
of experiments, and collected much valuable matter, but 
are not yet prepared to report the result of their labours. 
Tour Council regret that Professor Hughes Bennett 
will not, in consequence of ill-health, be able to attend 
the Annual Meeting.” 
The Council being fully convinced that the amount 
of Association work done at, and the large sums of money 
passing through, the Journal office, imperatively demand 
that the duties of Secretary of the Association, and the- 
management of the office, so interwoven with each other, 
should be performed by the same officer, who shall be 
directly responsible to the Committee of Council, re¬ 
commend that in future the General Secretary shall 
reside in London, so that, in addition to the duties now 
required of him, he shall give personal attention to, and 
be responsible for, the management of the financial and 
business department of the Journal office. 
After some discussion the Report was adopted. 
On Wednesday the Association met in the Town Hall, 
Devonport, when an address of congratulation and wel¬ 
come was presented from the mayor and corporation of 
that borough. 
It was agreed that Birmingham be the place of meet¬ 
ing in 1872, and that Alfred Baker, Esq., be the Presi¬ 
dent elect. 
Mr. Watkin Williams was appointed to act a3 Gene¬ 
ral Secretary till the end of the year, and a Committee 
was appointed to define the duties of the General Secre¬ 
tary, and to take steps for the appointment of, on the 
next annual meeting. 
Dr. George Johnson then delivered the Address in 
Medicine. He referred to the great interest which was- 
excited when, about fourteen years ago, the late Sir 
John Forbes published his book on 4 Nature and Art in 
the Treatment of Disease.’ The author of that little 
volume, in clear and vigorous language, with pitiless 
logic, characteristic truthfulness, and fearless candour, 
pointed out the evils resulting from what he called the 
over-active perturbative treatment and the mischievous 
polypharmacy which were then prevalent. Sir John 
Forbes lamented that in his day a purely expectant 
treatment of disease w r as rarely practised, except under 
other colours and under other names ; and he referred to 
the results of homoeopathic treatment, which he looked 
upon as simply inert, in proof of the proposition that 
“ the power of Nature to cure disease is infinitely greater 
than is generally believed by the great body of medical 
practitioners and by the public. So great, indeed, is 
this power,” he goes on to remark, “ and so universally 
operative, that it is a simple statement of facts to say, 
that of all diseases that are curable and cured, the vast 
majority are cured by Nature independently of art; and 
of the number of diseases that, according to our present 
mode of viewing things, may be fairly said to be curable 
by art, the far larger proportion may be justly set down 
as cured by Nature and art conjointly.” 
Since the publication of Sir John Forbes’s book, and 
partly, no doubt, in consequence of that publication, our 
views as to disease and its treatment have undergone a 
very great change. A purely expectant treatment is 
now as common as then it was rare. It is now fashion¬ 
able and orthodox to trust to the curative powers of 
Nature, and to doubt the therapeutic power of art. The 
pendulum has swung from one extreme to the other. 
At that time it w r as said, that according to the vulgar 
notion, the function of the physician consists in little 
else than the prescription or administration of drugs, 
and the function of the patient in little else than swal¬ 
lowing them.” Now, on the contrary, that which was; 
once said satirically, has come to bo an almost accepted 
rule of practice; namely, that “ the chief business of 
the physician is to amuse the patient while Nature, 
performs the cure.” 
Now it is a very noteworthy fact that, simultaneously 
and side by side with this firm belief in the almost all- 
sufficiency of Nature and the impotence of art, there 
notoriously exists an extreme unwillingness to admit 
that any phenomena of disease can rightly be considered 
as having a conservative or curative tendency, so that to- 
