Page:Archives of dermatology, vol 6.djvu/412



The meeting was opened by the delivery of an address by the President, Dr. Louis A. Duhring, of Philadelphia, entitled,

Gentlemen:—At the last annual meeting of the Association, when I had the honor of presenting my views on early American dermatology, it seemed to me that the subject was left in an incomplete state, and that the history should have been carried on to the present. The material, however, was found to be far more extensive than had been anticipated, and was, indeed, too great to utilize in the allotted time. As will be remembered, the history was brought to a close with the year 1870. Nor was this done without reason, for it must be evident, I think, to any observer who has followed the course of our dermatology, that the year marks the line between the old and the new. At this epoch, with the coming upon the field of earnest and conscientious workers, dermatology began to grow at a pace before unknown, and to assume a conspicuous position by the side of the other specialties of medicine. From this date onward to the present, exactly one decade, the subject has been steadily resolving itself into a well-formed and compact totality, founded on reliable and scientific data. As, therefore, on the previous occasion I had the pleasure of reviewing its gradual rise, I will to-day complete the task by considering the ground on which the structure has since been so well founded.

The past decade is replete with interest, and contains an amount of dermatological research which not only compares favorably with, but, I venture to say, exceeds that accomplished in the other departments of medicine. Germany, France, England, Italy, and our own country, have all done excellent work. To this statement the many scientific and practical communications to be found in the special journals and elsewhere amply testify. Especially prominent