Page:Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, volume 1.djvu/35

 them the harmony and good feeling which ought ever to characterise a liberal profession.

As one great means of carrying into effect these objects, it is proposed to hold an annual meeting of the members at some one of the provincial towns, changing the place of meeting each year; which meeting will not only be instrumental in producing friendly intercourse between all the members of the Association, however separated by distance from each other; but it will also be dedicated to the promotion of medical science, as one of the members will be annually appointed to give a history of medicine during the past year, or an oration on some subject connected with medical science, or a biographical memoir of some eminent cultivator of medical science, who may have resided in the provinces. This retrospective view of medicine alone, will, I think, stamp a considerable value upon our proceedings, because nothing can be more proper than that, at stated periods, reports should be made of the advancement of a progressive science, and nothing can be more likely to stimulate to renewed exertions those who have been toiling hard in the field of knowledge, than to look back and discover, that a harvest, more or less abundant, has been reaped as the fruit of their exertions.

Various, indeed, are the means by which our annual meeting may be found advantageous in increasing our stock of knowledge. It has been suggested by a very distinguished individual, that a certain number of members shall be appointed