Page:Dr Cobbold's address at the opening of the Royal Medical Society's new hall, no. 7, Melbourne Place, November 7th, 1852 (IA b21464911).pdf/3

 OPENING OF THE ROYAL MEDICAL SOCIETY'S NEW HALL, No. 7, MELBOURNE PLACE, NOVEMBER 7th, 1852.

[FROM THE MONTHLY JOURNAL OF MEDICAL SCIENCE, DECEMBER 1852.]

Friday, the 19th ult., the Royal Medical Society took possession of their New Hall, No. 7, Melbourne Place, on which occasion there were upwards of 200 members and visitors present, including Professors Syme, Simpson, Gregory, Bennett, Balfour, and More, and a large number of the Fellows of the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons.

At public business, the Senior President, Dr Cobbold, addressed the meetin g as follows: —

Gentlemen,—Both gratitude and honour prompt us, on an occasion like the present, to draw aside the curtain of forgetfulness, and advert briefly to the history of the past (!)

You are well aware that the establishment of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh was first brought about by the energy of a few enlightened individuals. "These youthful aspirants after truth perceived that it was not merely the frigid plodding over books, nor the doctrines and precepts of age and authority, nor the detail of empirical practice, that could inspire that taste and spirit, and give that manly tone to our inquiries which alone can render study agreeable, vigorous, and successful. They perceived that it was in society alone, by the mutual communication and reflection of the lights of reason and knowledge, that the intellectual as well as the moral powers of man are exalted and perfected."

During the first few years of the Society's existence, its weekly meetings were held at a tavern in the vicinity of the College; but, by permission of the managers of the Royal Infirmary, two apartments were afterwards provided in that Institution, one room being used exclusively as a library (which had already mustered some thousand volumes), the other employed for purposes of debate. Nearly forty years had thus expired, when the scheme for erecting a

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