THE  AMERICAN 
JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY 
  P  %  -A 
JUNE,  1907. 
V  is 
V\0      ^     X'  ] 
THE  LOCAL  SOCIETY  AS  THE  UNIT  OF* THE  AMERICAN 
MEDICAL  ASSOCIATION.1 
By  Albert  M.  Baton,  M.D. 
That  we  may  better  comprehend  this  subject  of  medical  organiza- 
tion, I  shall  devote  a  few  minutes  in  describing  the  source  of  the 
movement  by  briefly  relating  its  history. 
In  Colonial  days,  when  the  population  was  scattered,  transportation 
difficult  and  medical  education  limited,  the  necessity  for  medical 
organization  was  not  very  pressing. 
The  facts  known  concerning  the  formation  of  the  earliest  of  these 
Colonial  medical  societies  are  few.  We  know  that  from  1735  until 
at  least  1 741  there  existed  a  medical  society  in  Boston. 
In  1765  a  number  of  medical  men  in  Philadelphia  formed  them- 
selves into  a  society  under  the  name  of  the  Philadelphia  Medical 
Society.  It  existed  about  three  years,  when  it  merged  itself  into  a 
society  which  subsequently  changed  its  name,  becoming  the  Ameri- 
can Philosophical  Society,  known  to-day  throughout  the  whole 
civilized  world. 
The  Medical  Society  of  the  State  of  New  Jersey  was  organized 
in  1776  and  has  maintained  a  continuous  existence  ever  since. 
On  May  14,  1780,  a  meeting  of  physicians  was  held  in  Boston, 
which  organized  the  Boston  Medical  Society,  and  this  society  was 
a  powerful  factor  in  organizing  the  present  Medical  Society  of  the 
State  of  Massachusetts. 
After  having  petitioned  the  Legislature  in  1766  and  1774,  both 
times  being  refused,  the  medical  men  of  New  Haven,  Conn.,  suc- 
1  Read  at  the  May  meeting  of  the  Philadelphia  Branch  of  the  American 
Pharmaceutical  Association. 
(25O 
