Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 17.djvu/11



It is with unassumed diffidence that I appear before you to-night as the presiding officer of this body, and I approach with great hesitation the task of delivering the annual address, in compliance with the established usage of all assemblies of this kind in America.

I feel confident that there are many present who would fill the office with more ability, and that it would have been better for our Society if another had been chosen in my stead. I desire, in the commencement of my remarks, to return my thanks to my fellow members for the honor they have conferred upon me by calling me to preside over the deliberations of this, our Southern Association.

It has been suggested that there was no need for the existence of this Society; that the State, national and international medical associations were sufficient for all that was required for the progress and development of medical science. This was a mistake, as I hope I may be able to show. There is need, throughout the whole South, for county and State associations, and a special need for the existence and perpetuation of this organization.

It goes without saying that union and co-operation have become as indispensable to scientific bodies as in the material walks of life. In all human enterprises, every advance accomplished is by co-operative work. In this way laws are perfected; agriculture improved; philosophical investigations consummated; political and philanthropic reforms attained; by it railroads and canals are built; just and equitable laws enacted ; civilization extended; tyranny and oppression overthrown; the gospel preached, and civil and religious