84 TlMEHRI. 
The medical profession of the colony, in view of the 
changes connected with emancipation, established the 
Guiana Medical Association in 1838. Hitherto the 
planters had paid annual contributions to provide atten- 
dance for all their people, but now that things were on a 
different footing the medical men prepared a tariff of 
fees, which the negroes, who had hitherto paid nothing, 
thought very oppressive. Poor fellows, they thought to 
have all the privileges of freedom without its duties and 
responsibilities. 
In February 1838 a "Prospectus for building Public 
Rooms in Georgetown" was issued. The Colonial Hos- 
pital, which then stood on the site of the present Museum 
Buildings and Assembly Room, was about to be removed, 
and it was proposed to ask the Government for a grant 
of the lot when vacated. A new building was to be 
erected, in which would be an Assembly Room, Mess 
Room, Concert Room, Medical and Commercial Hall, and 
Offices. The want of such rooms was, they said, gene- 
rally acknowledged, as they had to put up with incon- 
venience, while it was not creditable to the colony that 
only private houses could be had for meetings. This 
project was however not carried out. 
On account of the difficulties resulting from emancipa- 
tion and the necessity for imported labour, the planters 
combined to form District Agricultural Societies, which 
appear to have been affiliated one to another, They 
held monthly meetings at different places and talked over 
their dismal prospects, condoling with each other on the 
impending ruin of the colony, and sometimes ostracising 
one of their number for enticing away the labourers of 
an adjoining estate. In the report of the West Bank and 
