Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Contributions to the Annals of Medical Progress and Medical Education in the United States Before and During the War of Independence
It has been said by some one that associated action constitutes the mainspring, the controlling motive power, of modern society; and whoever surveys with the eye of intelligence the present aspect and tendencies of civilization, will readily acknowledge the truth of the remark. It is by the association of capital that those great enter prises for facilitating commerce and intercourse among States and nations are being prosecuted with an energy and success which promise to break through the strongest barriers of nature, and make neighbors of nations on the opposite sides of our globe. It is by the association of mind with mind, in the church, the conference, the presby tory, the diocese, and the general convocations, that the moral force of Christendom is stirred up, concentrated, and brought to act with mighty power in disseminating the sublime truths of the Christian religion. So, too, by the association of mind with mind, in the rapidly recurring anniversary meetings, of the learned, not only is thought made to elicit thought, and the generous ambition of one made to kindle a kindred impulse in another, but the rich and varied fruits of many intellects are brought to a common storehouse, and made the common property of all; for intellectual treasures, unlike those of a material nature, neither become monopolized by concentration, lost by use, nor diminished by diffusion or communication to others. If it is true that associated action constitutes so prominent an element in the progressive tendencies of modern society as a whole, it is no less so in reference to the several classes of which the whole is composed; and of these individual classes none holds a more important or in?uential relation to all the rest than that which is made up of the active practitioners of the healing art. Forced by the nature of their calling to become preeminently cultiva tors of the whole field of natural science and philosophy, while they have the freest possible access to the homes and hearts of all classes, they are daily exerting an in ?uence over the physical and intellectual elements of society second to that of no other class in Christendom. Hence, whatever is calculated materially to in?uence the character of the medical profession is worthy of one page, at least, in the historical records of our race.
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