An Address on Good Remedies--Out of Fashion
Authors: C. J. Hare
Journal: BMJ (1883)

MlY first duty, which is a duty and a pleasure alike, is to thank you most sincerely for the high honour and distinction you have con- ferred upon me in electing me President of this most important Branch of the British Medical Association.But while I feel the honour deeply, and know that it is one which might well be coveted by the mnost distinguished muembers of our profession-as, in fact, it ha.already been held'by many such-I a. quite sensible that the position brings with it deep responsibilities, and that it behove.me to take good heed, not only that the welfare of the Branch suffer no deterioration during my ter. of office, but that, on the contrary, the ensuing year should be marked by at least the onward progress which ha. been the characteristic feature of this part of the Asso- ciation under the guidance of my predecessors.The sketch which has this afternoon been given you of the work of the past year proves how many and how varied are the subjects which comne before, and which a,. influenced by, this Branch; and though it has been the happiness of oar *tiend here-my prede- cessor-to conduct not a few of these to a bappy termnination, some of them are of such a nature that no sing>le year of office can pos- sibly inaugurate and complete the.. Great honour be to hi. for the devotion, as regards the time and labour, which he has given to the duties which a year ago h.undertook to the judiciousness with wvhich he ha.presided over numerous, most important meetAings of the Branch; and to the gfreat success with which h. has conducted its affairs.It is no small honour-it must be a source of higli gratificationto bim, during his tenure of office, to have furthered the progress of medical reform, to have established two new Districts in connec- tion with our Branch, and, above all, to have presided at the inaugural meeting establishing the system of the collective investi- gation of disease-a magnificent success, the influence of which will go on still extending, and which wvill never be forgotten by thos,e who heard or have since read the ma.sterly and telling addresses on that occasion-I ought rather to call the.orations-of Paget, of Gull, and of our most esteemed Vice-President, Professor Humphry.But a position of this kind induces-nay, comupels-me to pause and consider.This is,, possibly enough, the last presidential chair I shall be called upon to fill, and my mind very naturally reverts to the time when, then a very young man, and, indeed, too young for the honour, tble kindness (and I suppose the wish to encourage mne) of the members of the Hlarveian Society mnade me their president.This was so long ago as the year 1847, and the space of time thus bridged ever amnounts to fully -ore than five-and-thirty years.At that time, Sir Henry Holland, and Chambers, and Brigrht, and Williams, and Latham, and Addison, and Graves, and Stokes, ,were in the full career of medical practice; the classical lectures of Watson were the text-book-anid a glorious one it was-on medi- cine; and at that time the clinical lectures of Todd, which were destined to produce so great a modification in treatment, were a thing of the future.Brodie, and Fergusson, and Liston, were amnongst those.whodivided between them the surgical honours