The comet. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1877-1882, 1880-08-07


charities
Another measure which would probably
contribute largely to the promotion OF the
highest and most material interests OF medi-
cine in the South, would be the establish
mont of Southern Interstate organiza-
ton. TO be known ms the Medical Associa-
tion of the Cotton States, to be devoted to
the study and investigation of diseases ana
ypes of diseases peculiar to the cotton belt,
and looking especially TO the accumulation,
preservation, arrangement and publication
of the vast fund of practical information,
both pathological and therapeutical, now
buried among the often secluded, yet
learned and thoughtful practitioners OF the
South. II is my honest conviction That the
educated physicians of the Cotton states
are the ablest and most successful general
practitioners in the world. There Is among
them less blind devotion to theory and
formulated opinions more original thlnk-
ing and reasoning from present iacts ana
the phenomena of everyday practice, more
unbiased observation more bold and indie
pendent action upon the responsibility OF
individual Judgment than can be iound
among the physicians of any other country
This is the legitimate result ct that indl-
yiduality to which we have before referred,
and which, taken separately, constitutes
the strength but collectively and III the
sense of associated action, is the weakness
of our profession.
Another great aim to be accomplished by
such an Association would be to encourage
and secure, by concert of action and COM
munity of interest, the concentration OF
talent, patronage and capital upon aSouth-
ern Medical Institution of the highest
order and most thorough equipment, where
the Southern student could learn, directly,
the peculiar types and features of diseases
incident to this section, as influenced by
climate, occupations, habits, temperament,
etc. Almost every physician in the Cotton
States, who has been educated exclusively
in Northern college, where principles
are ably and correctly taught, discovers,
after ten or twenty years practice, that he
has been compelled to learn, from expert
ence and hard labor, great deal that is
somewhat at variance with his early teach
ing; and early teaching, gentlemen, is an
anchor from which it is difficult to cast
loose.
Such an organization would also eNer-
else very salutary influence over State
Associations. 1t would energizc and in
yigorate them by extending the basis of
cooperation andmore thoroughly diflusing
the accumulated wisdom and experience
of the profession
The American Medical Association is too
unwieldy and too remote in its operations
to impart any direct stimulation to our
State Associations. A very large proper
ton of medical men, who are connected
with State Associations, know it only as Il
part of the history of the profession in
this country for the last thirty-three years
seldom, if ever having seen even pub
| lshed volume of its transactions.
There is, however, now degree of inter
est in medical organization throughout the
Cotton States, far in advance of any pre-
vious period in our history. In this great
move we are proud to know Mississippi has
not remained behind, as the records of this
Association, and our able, sagacious and
active Board of Health amply demonstrate.
Too much credit cannot be accorded to
those few pioneer and inyincible spirits
who first conceived the idea of this AssOci-
alton, and who wrought up and sustained
its existence, in the face of so many diff
culties. and under such dark discourage
ments. We see here yet the familiar faces
of a number of those enterprising and
magnanimOus gentlemen who stood by
this Association in its infancy, fostering
its frail vitality, dirnntin@ lis feeble foot
steps in the pathway of Science and HUI
manity, guarding and shielding it against
the criticisms of the public, (who were to
be its greatest benefciaries) and sometimes,
even, against the doubts and sncers of our
own fraternity.
Permit me to say, gentlemen, that your
manifest wisdom and unselfishness of pur-
pose, your well directed and persistent |
energies in the great work of sanitation
and progressive medicine, have already
stamped their impression upon popular
sentiment, and reached at last, in the in
terests of life and health, that hitherto
closed and inaccessible organ-the ear
of legislative Incredibly; and if those
who succeed you shall be faithful to
the trust which you bequeath them. in
the distant years to come not only those
who follow your banner, but the whole
people of Mississippi viii rise up in graft
tude, and call you blessed.
To one more fact desire to call your at
IGNITION touching the destiny of Medicine ,
N the Cotton States. In point of character
md the material which composes its ranks,
is future is substantially in your own
lands.
In the lists of statesmen, jurists, theo-
Ogians and soldiers, the South presents an
rray of talent which challenges COMPARE
on with any country or any section. The
ICES, the JOhnstons, the Jacksons, Hood,
hampton, Gordon and Forest, would have
cen as celebrated in surgery as they are c.
in the herOism of military his 81
Try. Calhoun, Lowndcs, Yancey, Benja-
in, and Jefferson Davis, would have been =,
lually distinguished as professors as SC
1thors and scientific investigators in med B
ine-as they are now famous in the annals az
governmental science, or in the theory a.
I'd genius of laws. pr
The two great magnets which attract ga "a
lent, are fortune and position. The
carer the field of medicine can be approx d
lated to the other learned professions in
is respect, the greater the volume of ca
city and success which will be drawn Al
to it. .........
Almost every young man who enters the
actice of medicine, does so with the
unset and encouragement, and under 7
e guidance of some physician. Your
Innate connection with all the phases
d grades of society, the responsibility of
ur positions as primary preceptors and L
'tructors, constitutes you, in great
assure, the recruiting officers Of your own
iks. II
Vow, there should be an associated pur- Blu
Sc running throughout our State Assoc pre-
70