Annual address before the Medical Society of the County of Albany, November 8, 1859 / by Sylvester D. Willard.

  • Willard, Sylvester David, 1825-1865.
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual address before the Medical Society of the County of Albany, November 8, 1859 / by Sylvester D. Willard. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    medical society; lest those who have greater experience in the practice, as well as those who have more extended research in the science of medicine, and who are more accomplished in its literature, should regard them as productions of no special merit, and as adding nothing to the already accumulated mass of professional knowledge. It has happened from such causes, real or imaginary, that an incubus has rested upon other societies, and it may be well to question if such influences have not operated to quell an ardor in our own, the encouragement of which would have at length resulted in good to the cause of that science in which we should have a common interest. Admit that it be true, then, that the efforts of those less experienced are wanting in purity of style and steel-like polish of thought, they may nevertheless possess the roughness of facts, and be as unpolished as the flint; yet, like flint in contact with steel, Ihey may wake the fires of matured genius. Each step in scientific development is in itself valuable, however unpretending the source from which it is disclosed. With this thought, let us hope that the junior members of the several committees just appointed will engage in the various investigations they involve without re serve, fully believing that however familiar and unimportant the reports they may present may be regarded by a few, they will nevertheless have a practical value that will give them interest with the majority, and they will certainly relieve our meetings from a discreditable barrenness. For these reports a free discussion and a liberal criticism should be courted, with the feeling that, as the latter stimulates the pen of the poet and kindles the thoughts of the philosopher, so it will incite the student in medicine to thorough and dili- gent research. It is a subject for congratulation, gentlemen of the Society, that the closing year finds so large an accession to our unbroken ranks. But while we miss none from our immediate number, there are those present who will not forget that another of the luminaries of our professional