Published Monthly

by

The W. Va. State Medical Association

12842

L. D. WILSON.

Under the Direction
of the

Committee on Publication.

C. A. WINGERTER.

Vol. III-No. I.

Original Articles.

ANNUAL ADDRESS.

By Fleming Howell, M.D., Clarksburg.

(Read at Annual Meeting of State Medical
Asso., Clarksburg, May, 1908.)
Mr. President, and Members of the West
Virginia State Medical Association.

It is not necessary for me to express to you my appreciation of the honor that you have conferred by electing me presi

dent of this Association.

Forty-one years ago last February 28th, a call for a West Virginia Medical convention was issued, signed by sixteen. of the physicians of the State, and on April 19th, twenty-two responded to that call by meeting in our neighboring city of Fairmont and organizing the West Virginia Medical Society, for the purpose, as was set forth in the call, of elevating the standard of practical Medicine and Surgery in West Virginia, and to render quackery odious, as it deserves. Further on in this call they declared: "There is much labor to be performed by the profession in West Virginia before it can reach the standard of respectability which is its legitimate inheritance in some of the sister States. Disease and death do not relax their hold in favor of our mountains and valleys. On the contrary, some of them are the very strongholds of the enemy; and before his ravages can be stayed, the inhabitants must be taught the laws of hygiene, and be able to mark

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the difference between the true and the false the intelligent physician and the murderous pretender, who is everywhere present with the offer of his ignoble service. These important lessons none but competent medical men can teach; and it is high time they should begin the noble work of giving life and health to the people, and respectability to themselves."

Many of us are proud to have known, and to have been associated with these men. We cherish the recollection of

them, and honor them as worthy exemplars. These men had scant opportunities compared with those of to-day, but their zeal in the acquirement of knowledge, their consciousness of their noble mission, and their devotion to duty were so earnest, sincere and unselfish, that we, and those who follow us cannot, without great endeavor and without the stimulus of like association and attrition, attain to their wisdom, enthusiasm and earnest devotion.

They laid the foundation of this association so deep and firm and broad, and so ethically correct, that we, to whom they intrusted the superstructure, will have diligently to use the level, square and plummet to enable us to faithfully carry out the altruistic and noble and useful design.

The measure of influence and of honor that we of the medical profession of the State enjoy to-day, is owing largely to them. But we should not be satisfied simply to maintain what they achieved. They expected more of their successors

than this.

As the knowledge of the causes and nature of diseases gradually increases, and as our view thereby gradually becomes broader, we see constantly more and more that demands to be done, and our labors and responsibilities are, as a consequence, relatively increased.

When this Association was organized the Cellular Theory was a novelty, and its far reaching influence upon the theory and practice of medicine and surgery was not suspected. The microscope, stethoscope, ophthalmoscope, laryngoscope, the speculum and the clinical thermometer were not in general use. The four living charter members of this Association remember when Sir Joseph Lister promulgated the principles of antiseptic surgery, and they have seen evolved from this, aseptic surgery. They remember long anterior to the time when the theories of phagocytosis, antitoxins and opsonins were first conceived. They remember when all our public health laws and pure food and pure drug laws, national as well as state, were enacted, and it is owing to the industry and perseverance of these men, and of just such men as these, actuated by just such thirst for knowledge, and possessed of just such unflagging industry, that these great discoveries were made and these beneficial health laws, national as well as state, were enacted at all.

A more accurate scientific knowledge of the essential nature of diseases and of the means for the prevention and cure of many of them; the conviction that the physician, by virtue of his profession, is responsible to the community and to the State; that anything short of the best that is known to the science of medicine

is culpable; that our professional lives should be lives of constant study and investigation; that medicine is a learned profession, great and noble, and that it shall continue so to be, and that it should be a great brotherhood, bound firmly together by mutual regard and consideration; that each member should be true to the other and to his sacred trust; and that the only strife admissible should be that noble strife toward duty nobly done. These high conceptions of the principles, ideals and duties of our profession are what our predecessors have given over into our keeping to uphold and perform. I would that we may all be possessed of

that true and noble ethical spirit, of that earnest sense of duty, of that industry and perseverance, and of that scientific knowledge and perception, that will enable us to go on to still higher accomplishments as was hoped and expected of us.

Even the youngest of us, I think, see and realize the constantly widening field of scientific medicine. In our own State, and in our own community, there is no lack of matters calling loudly for attention. tion. The time is rapidly approaching when physicians and Boards of Health will be held responsible for the prevalence of typhoid fever, smallpox, scarlet fever, diphtheria, malaria, yellow fever, and the other contagious and infectious diseases. I will make this broad statement, which every physician will admit is true, that is, if our profession had the reasonable authority of law, and could be properly supported by public sentiment, and would employ, as I am sure it would then employ, such means of prevention as are well known to it to be efficient, that all of these diseases would be a thing of the past, practically, within a very few years.

Before referring any more especially to the things that demand our attention, let us glance for a moment at our own organization, at ourselves, and see whether we are as well prepared and as well organized as we should be, to meet the responsibilities and duties incident to our profession.

At the first meeting of this Association forty-one years ago, there were twentytwo members; at the re-organization in 1902, there were less than three hundred; now there are more than seven hundred members, reported as in good standing in the Association.

Since the re-organization of the American Medical Association, at the meeting in St. Paul, June, 1901, and the re-organization of this Association, at its meeting at Parkersburg, the following May, and the reorganization of the State Associations throughout the country, there is a general movement on the part of the better men in the profession, who have heretofore been indifferent to society work, to get into the organization, and those who have been irregular are beginning to see and feel the importance of conforming to the ethics of the profession. If this great

organization, as it is becoming, will sedulously maintain the high ethical standard of the profession of the past, its influence for harmony and general good fellowship and against unethical practices, whether openly or adroitly concealed, will be irresistible. But there can be no compromise in this matter. It was said long ago: "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon." We must keep apart from him who would be "monk or devil at will," if we would avoid confusion worse confounded.

Every worthy physician in this State should be in this Association. But we should be as vigilant to keep out the unworthy as we are solicitous to get the worthy in. The great movement for medical reorganization was instituted to elevate and not to lower the profession. No organization can be better than the average of its component parts.

The younger men in the profession, perhaps, do not appreciate the importance to themselves of a high standard of ethics as the older men do. The former look forward with enthusiasm to professional distinction and to financial success, and these are commendable and honorable if worthily obtained, but the older men have learned that these are not the best of life. But to be able to look calmly back, with out regret, through the long vista of the years, to words of comfort gently breathed, to deeds of mercy kindly done, to acts of courtesy nobly shown, this is what they value more.

I would exhort young men not to take up this noble life work with any feeling of distrust, or with any lack of appreciation of the older men who have borne the heat and burden of the day, blazed out and cleared the way for easier progress. You may easily have a less degree of appreciation of them than they have of charity for you. Their armor may be battered and worn, for it has been used, but it has been kept untarnished. They will encourage you and hold up your hands in every case where you show yourselves worthy. Strive to stand in your age and generation as they have stood in theirs.

I think that all will agree that a higher standard of education, preliminary to the study of medicine, should be insisted upon; that the course in our medical schools should be more practical and

thorough, well balanced and well rounded out; that no part or department should be unduly cultivated at the expense of another; that medical jurisprudence and medical ethics, so much neglected, should have attention commensurate with their importance. In short, the graduate in medicine should be so thoroughly and evenly prepared, and so highly inspired, that he would naturally and with confidence take a place as an accomplished and ethical, and therefore as a useful and honorable physician.

The system of post-graduate study which has been so generally adopted in our county societies can not be too highly encouraged. In these classes the younger men can acquire practical ideas of inestimable value to themselves, and the older can measure up, compare and harmonize, when necessary, what they are taught, with the newer discoveries and theories, and thus be both benefited.

As to the health department of our State, our State Board of Health has done good work, and it is improving in efficiency each year. As the present members of this board are gradually succeeded, it should be by the best men in the State, and this means by men from among the membership of this Association. The appointments should be based upon eminent fitness alone, and should not depend upon political affiliations or political pull.

Our county and city health officers should receive their appointments for the same reasons, and they should be so assured of holding their positions, and so supported by the better element of the people, that they could not be deterred from performing their duties by any political influences or political boss.

The question of vital statistics is one of importance in our State as in every other. We should see that the law we have on this subject be greatly improved, and then that it be observed instead of be

ing a dead letter upon our statute books as heretofore. In the mortuary statistics for the year 1906, just published by the Bureau of the Census, Department of Commerce and Labor, only sixteen of our States are represented. Some of our western and southern States which we have been accustomed to regard as being new and crude, or as being behind the eastern and central States, as for instance