Transactions Of The Texas State Medical Association PDF Download

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL ADDRESS. THEORETICAL REFLECTIONS UPON THE MANIFEST- ATIONS AND MODUS OPERANDI OF DRUG ACTION UPON THE LIVING ORGANISM. j. w. Mclaughlin, M. D., ADSTIN. Because it has been the custom of this association, since its organization, to require an address on some subject relating to medicine?its achievements, history, traditions or relations to society?I am before you tonight to discharge this duty of the retiring president. It would seem, at first glance, not difficult to select a theme from the above mentioned subjects, but in examining the question, closer, and in view of the fact that such an address must entertain not only physicians, but also laymen, I find that first impressions in this case, as in most others, are untrustworthy, and as you approach the subject difficulties that were not seen from a distance, become apparent. One of the many difficulties that beset our path in choosing a subject for such an address, is, that in order to entertain or instruct physicians, one must either bring forward new matter for thought or present old ideas in a clearer or better manner than they had previously been presented; while, on account of the lack of interest taken by non-technical persons in the dry details of medical work, it will be seen that part of our audience would not be entertained by that character of discussion, involving technical work and language that medical men expect in a medical paper. The history of medicine, it is true, is always an interesting and fruitful field that will furnish entertainment and instruction for all. In glancing over some of the addresses of my predecessors I find, however, that this field has been drawn upon more than once, and the history of our science has been followed from the ancient, through medieva...