Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 1.djvu/32

 labourers are neither few nor of small value, and the knowledge of this fact was the circumstance which induced them to consider, that the more extended enterprise, on which we are this day entering, was not only feasible, but would almost certainly be crowned with success. It occurred to them that as the establishment of a Journal in the Midland Counties had been well received, and supported beyond their most sanguine expectations, there was no reason why a society of provincial physicians and surgeons might not be formed, to elicit valuable information, and to communicate it to the public, under the title of Contributions, Memoirs, or Transactions. They were moved to this consideration by contemplating the necessity that, in the yet imperfect state of our science, exists for the further collection of facts, which, in order to be abundant, must be derived from a wide field, and from numerous contributors. But the duties and the cares of life prevent many from paying their mite into the general treasury, except where arrangements are made for exciting industry, and facilitating communication. Association ministers to these ends more effectually than any other means hitherto devised; omnes trahimur et ducimur ad cognition is et scientiæ cupiditatem; and on this ground the proposition was made, to associate the Provincial Medical Practitioners of England, or, at least, as many as can be brought to rally round a common centre, in a comprehensive co-operating Institution, which, by collecting the results of individual experience, and bringing the energies of many minds to bear on those unsettled points which have