The Health bulletin [serial] - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

THE HEALTH BULLETIN. 223THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF A MEDICAL SOCIETYPresidential Address Before ihe Wake County Medical Society, January 9, 1913By Hubert A. Rotster, A.B., M.D., Raleigh, N. C.It is quite unnecessary to enterupon an argument to demonstrate tliebenefits to be derived from -membershipin a medical organization. Itgoes witlicut saying that, in order tobe effective in the world, each profession,trade or business must be organizedand that the individual membersmust stand together. The medicalprofession is no exception to thisprinciple. When we club together intosocieties, we are helping to cementcloser the whole profession everywhereinto a homogeneous body sothat v/e may act as a unit on questionswhich concern all of us. Cooperationis a vital thing in these days andphysicians particularly need it, to promotetheir own social and professionaluplift, to secure adequate sanitarylaws in their communities, and to protectthemselves against impostors, delinquentsand quacks. Surely nonecan deny that these are worthy aimsand righteous prerogatives.But these purposes, excellent as theyare, do not represent all that the organizedprofession stands for. I mostemphatically believe that the highestfunction of a medical society is educational.Its chief reason for existenceis to make better doctors of itsmembers. Mutual relations hold hereas well. We can all teach each othersomething and we all learn from eachother. After all, we are on earth onlyfor this—to do our work each day asv.ell as we can and to give humanitythe advantage of our knov\iedge andlabor. The differences between us asphysicians consist not in the incomeswe make, or in the number of patientswe see in a day, but rather in what weknow and how industriously and con-'icientiously we use what we know."The knowledge which we can use isthe only real knowledge All elsehangs like dust about the brain ordries up like rain drops off thestones." When we acquire knowledgeit is our privilege to pass it on to others.In doing so we strengthen ourown store and inspire thoughts inthose who receive it. Great is the rewardof the man who causes two ideasto grow where only one grew before.No man can possibly master a subjectunless he either talks it or writes it.When a paper is prepared it meansthat the author has got hold of hissubject matter and improved himselfto that extent: when it is discussedthe thoughts are scattered broadcastand some kernel is certain to springup fourfold. Without debate there canbe no progress; if we all agree, thewheels stand still. And this is whatthe medical society does—it causes usto progress in knowledge, it takes thekinks out of our thought waves, itmakes for a breadth of ideas that allthe reading, all the schools and all theclinical experience can never give.The most interesting thing about amedical meeting is. the feeling that wehave come both to receive and to impartthat which will be of service. Ihave sometimes wondered if we realizedthat the most important part ofour program each month is that whichrelates to the actual professionalwork—clinical reports and the readingof papers—and that whatever elsecomes up is purely incidental. Theframers of the by-laws for county societiesover the country evidently hadthis in mind, for they wisely placedthe scientific portion first and thenarranged for the business side. In societieswhich have the opposite rule,I have seen the time so taken up withparliamentary proceedings and unfinishedbusiness that the appointedsubject for discussion was actually