Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 1.djvu/28

 provincial physicians and surgeons, who are, and have been, zealous and successful cultivators of our science; whose wishes, moreover, for the success of the association, are ardent and strong; and who are only detained, by paramount necessity, from being here this day, to express their conviction that such an association, as we are now about to form, is not only desirable, but loudly called for, as positively necessary, if we, in the present day, mean to avail ourselves of all the advantages which the stream of time has carried down to us. When, Gentlemen, I contemplate these promising omens, can I, for one moment, doubt the success of our enterprise? can I, for an instant, cease to devote my poor abilities to advance the progress of the good cause in which we are engaged?

Neither, Gentlemen, will I affect to hide, on the present occasion, the feelings of unmixed joy which I experience in the reflection, that the Infirmary of my native county has the honour of receiving within its venerable walls, the first meeting that is called for carrying into effect the admirable purposes we have in view: because I feel that the more subservient such institutions can be made to the advancement of medical knowledge, the more instrumental will they ever be, in relieving the afflictions of the sick poor who seek an asylum within their walls.

The benefits which arise from the association of men, for the advancement of general science, have been long felt and acknowledged. Witness, more especially, the recent establishment of the “ British Association for the advancement of Science, ” in