President's address : delivered at the seventy-sixth Annual Meeting of the British Medical Association / by Simeon Snell ... Royal Infirmary, Sheffield.

  • Snell, Simeon, 1851-1909.
Date:
[1908]
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Credit: President's address : delivered at the seventy-sixth Annual Meeting of the British Medical Association / by Simeon Snell ... Royal Infirmary, Sheffield. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS Delivered at the Seventy-Sixth Annual Meeting of the British Medical Association. BY SIMEON SNELL, F.R.C.S.Edin., OPHTHALMIC SURGEON, ROYAL INFIRMARY, SHEFFIELD; PROFESSOR OF OPHTHALMOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD. My first and most pleasing duty is to thank you for your kindness in placing me in the honourable and distinguished position of President of this great Association. To have one’s name enrolled amongst the seventy-five eminent men who have preceded me in this office is indeed an honour which naturally can only come to few of the many thousands who are numbered in the British Medical Association. It next devolves upon me to offer you a most cordial welcome, one and all, to this city. To you, residents in other parts of these islands, we, the medical practitioners of Sheffield, extend a hearty greeting; to our fellow-sub- jects from many distant lands, but under the same flag, we accord a motherland welcome; whilst to our guests, whether they be our kinsmen from across the Atlantic, or others from the various European States, we extend the right hand of fellowship. All are welcome to this city, and to partake of the scientific fare and the hospitalities which, with the help of our citizen friends, it has been our happiness to prepare. The present is the third annual meeting of the Associa- tion in this city. At the first meeting, in 1845, the President-elect retired the day before, because, as he said, he was not in accord with the medical politics of the Association, whilst the next, in 1876,* was held at short notice in consequence of the abandonment of the meeting, owing to local differences, in another town which had been selected. To-day, far-reaching questions of great importance are agitating the Association. Whatever be the outcome, let us hope that this, the greatest Association the members of any profession have ever seen, may in no measure depart from the high traditions it has ever set before it, but rather increase its usefulness to the profession, and if it does this it will he for the benefit of the public. The first meeting was the thirteenth of the Association, which was then the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, and was held in July, 1845. Dr. Charles F. Favell was the president and Dr. F. Branson the secretary. Such, however, is destiny, that the president only lived to the next year, passing away at the early age of 42, whereas Dr. Branson attained the age of 82, and died only twelve years since. Dr. Favell was the representa- tive of a medical family already then well known and respected for generations in the city. His nephew, William F. Favell, delivered the Address in Surgery in this city in 1876, and another nephew is worthily presiding over the Gynaecological Section at this meeting. It is interesting to note that in his farewell address (1845) the retiring President, Dr, Robertson of Northampton, pre- dicted a long and prosperous career for this Association. These were his words: Our Association, I trust, is destined to experience a very long career of existence, increasing from year to year, till it reaches the full stature and importance of a national institution. May be permitted to look at it in imagination through the long vista of distant futurity, and to apostrophize it in the well- known words of one of our classical poets ? “ O ! while along the stream of time thy name Expanded flies, and gathers all its fame; Say, shall my little bark attendant sail Pursue the triumph, and partake the gale? ” Pope ; Moral Essay. How true has this prophetic vision become! These words were spoken in this city sixty-three years ago at a time when the Provincial Medical and Surgical Associa- tion, as it was then named, numbered less than 1,900 members, whereas the British Medical Association of 1908 numbers more than 22,000 members, and its far-reaching character is such that it is limited only by the confines of the British Empire, serving not only as a bond between medical brethren in different parts, but as a link in the chain of imperial unity. To-day we have gladly welcomed as our guests numerous representatives from many different climes and many distant countries, all members * Dr. Bartolome was President at this meeting; he died in 1889. The Local Secretaries were Mr. Arthur Jackson—he died in 1895; and Dr. Keeling, who is still living. [447/08] of this great Association, and all owing allegiance to the same Sovereign. At the second meeting, in 1876, the British Medical Asso- ciation had increased its membership to 7,000, and the population of this city was 260,000, it having more than doubled the number of its inhabitants since the previous meeting in 1845. Let me here say something of the changes which have come over Sheffield. The town has become a city, and is shortly to be the centre of an episcopal diocese. The main streets have given place to others, wide and open; many very fine buildings worthy of a great city have arisen, notably the town hall and the university. Hospital extension has gone on apace, no less a sum than more than £250,000 having been spent at the four institutions,! either in alterations and extensions or on the erection of new buildings. The large works of world-wide reputation have become more extensive, and have done more than ever to maintain the pre-eminence of the city as the metropolis of the steel industry. The population has reached to nearly half a million, and a healthy public spirit has been abroad, making Sheffield one of the most progressive and prosperous cities of the kingdom. It has been fortunate in its public men, in their character and ability, from whichever side of political life they have been drawn ; and fortunate, too, that they, when an undertaking has been manifestly for the public good, have been enabled to sink their differences and work together for the general weal. The Sheffield School of Medicine ranks among the oldest of similar institutions in this country. Shortly, its history is as follows: An active and busy practitioner in the early part of the last century, Mr. Hall Overend, had collected together a museum, which, for those days, must have been a very extensive one. By 1827 his ideas, with the assistance of his son, Wilson Overend, and others, had developed into a School of Anatomy and Surgery, and a complete syllabus of lectures was issued. In 1835 (January 26th) a riot occurred and the school was burnt down, the populace believing, not without some reason, that resurrected bodies were therein. Shortly after the foundation of this Overend School another medical institution was promoted on more ambitious lines, and on July 9th, 1828, the foundation stone was laid by Dr. (afterwards Sir) Arnold Knight. In the same month of the next year (July 2nd) this school was opened with an introductory address by the same eminent physician. At this period the population of Sheffield did not number 70,000, and the students that the promoters could expect were the apprentices in the town and neighbourhood. A local directory of the time gives 8 physicians and 33 surgeons as residing in the town, but some of these were not, I think, regular prac- titioners. It was, however, a time of considerable activity in medical quarters. A medical and surgical society had been established in 1819, and a medical library two years earlier. There is evidence also that, though the profession was few in numbers, it yet contained many active and able men. The Medical School, founded in 1828 by Sir Arnold Knight, pursued an uninterrupted career until, three years ago, it became the Medical Faculty of the University. Through good fortune or ill fortune the work of medical education was carried on in this city. At no time were the services of its lecturers pecuniarily recom- pensed, but such an esprit de corps was established that it may safely be asserted, the exceptions being so insig- nificant, that no medical practitioner has occupied a prominent position who, at one time or another in his career, has not rendered more or less service to the Medical School. Up to 1889 the original building was still occupied. Then the school was removed to a new + The four institutions are (D Royal Infirmary (255 beds), large alterations and extensions; (2) Royal Hospital (165 beds), rebuilding; (3) Jessop Hospital for Women (80 beds), rebuilt and extensions and (4) Children’s Hospital (40 beds) new buildings.