ARTICLE XXXVII.

THE ANNUAL DISCOURSE.

ERRATUM.

On page 48 of the Proceedings of 1903, and in the corresponding part of Supplement No. II., the List of Deceased Fellows should be as follows:

ARTICLE XXXVII.

THE ANNUAL DISCOURSE.

SOME FERMENTATIONS IN MEDICAL EDUCATION.

BY HAROLD C. ERNST, M.D.

OF BOSTON.

DELIVERED JUNE 8, 1904.

NOTE.-At an Adjourned Meeting of The Massachusetts Medical Society, held Oct. 3, 1860, it was

Resolved, "That The Massachusetts Medical Society hereby declares that it does not consider itself as having endorsed or censured the opinions in former published Annual Discourses, nor will it hold itself responsible for any opinions or sentiments advanced in any future similar discourses."

Resolved, "That the Committee on Publications be directed to print a statement to that effect at the commencement of each Annual Discourse which may hereafter be published."

SOME FERMENTATIONS IN MEDICAL

EDUCATION.

MR. PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS

OF THE MASSACHUSETTS MEDICAL SOCIETY:

In looking up the history of the office I am honored in attempting to fill to-day, certain points of interest have been brought to my attention.

In 1804, Dr. Isaac Rand delivered the first Annual Address on Phthisis Pulmonalis, and the use of the warm. bath and with six exceptions (1814, 1815, 1819, 1825, 1831, 1832) the practice has been continued annually, until to-day it enters upon the second century of its exist

ence.

The subjects considered in this long line of addresses cover, as might be supposed, a wide range, and it is interesting to note a gradual change that has occurred. About twenty per cent. (19 out of 95) have been upon what may be called "specific" lines of thought—such as the first one (mentioned above) or those of Abraham Haskell (1812) on Cynanche Trachealis, Walter Channing (1833) on Irritable Uterus, or Horatio Adams (1858), Investigations. upon the subject of Vaccination. Such specific subjects were, however, very largely treated more than fifty years ago (17 out of 19), and in the last half century the speakers upon this occasion have usually considered matters of general interest to the profession in a long series of entertaining essays.