The Medical Profession and Society ~ Paperback ~ George C. Shattuck

Excerpt from The Medical Profession and Society: The Annual Discourse Before the Massachusetts Medical Society, May 30, 1866 Our responsibilities are great, and each one of us in his solitary round, as well as at these times of reunion for counsel and refreshment, must realize more or less vividly the arduousness and difficulties of his calling, as well as his need of support and encouragement. We have this year appropriated more time to the objects which bring us together. Scientific papers and communications are encouraged by an assurance that they will not be crowded out by matters of business and routine. There is no longer one address or one speaker, in which and by whom such subjects are presented. Hours have been assigned for written communications on matters pertaining to our science and our art, and hence your attention may now with propriety be invited to some thoughts on our professional duties and relations, the subject of the annual address nineteen years ago, by one beloved and esteemed in his day, whom the present speaker must be content to follow here as elsewhere, at an humble distance. One of our trials is that of intercourse with many who, from ignorance or wilfulness, despise our profession and treat it with disrespect and insult. We are living in an age and a community where authority is misunderstood and set at nought, where the individual feels himself called upon to treat lightly the conclusions and experience of the past, and to investigate and decide anew on most important questions and interests. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.