a~'©SG©1R HDeMcal library Special 
flDectino to raise jfunbs for a 
1Rew Builbina, bclb on IRovember xxix, 
MDCCCXCVIII. BOSTON MEDICAL LIBRARY. 
SPECIAL MEETING TO RAISE FUNDS FOR A NEW 
BUILDING, 
November 29, 1898. 
David W. Cheeveb, M.D., In the chair. 
Two amendments to the By-laws were passed unani- 
mously. The first provides that any member of the 
Massachusetts Medical Society, Massachusetts Dental 
Society, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, and such 
others as may be approved by the Executive Com- 
mittee, may become members of the Association by 
simply signing their names on the roll at the Library. 
The second amendment changes the date of the annual 
meeting to November instead of October as hereto- 
fore. 
In obedience to the vote passed at the annual meet- 
ing, on the motion introduced by Dr. Chadwick, this 
special meeting has been called for the purpose of see- 
ing if we can raise funds to leave this building and to 
get a better one. We are poor, but we are honest. 
Moreover, we are in this very unfortunate position: 
with constant accessions of books and periodicals, total 
inability to display them or to use them, great danger 
from fire, inaccessibility even to those stores of litera- 
ture that we have already accumulated — a position 
REMARKS OP THE PRESIDENT. 2 
not worthy of the dignity of the regular profession in 
this community. In order to raise this money a strong 
appeal must be made to those outside the profession, 
and also to those inside the profession. 
Within six to ten miles’ radius of this building there 
are not less than 1,000 physicians of the Massachu- 
setts Medical Society practising medicine. The Suffolk 
District Society, which does not follow strictly the lines 
of Suffolk County, has rising 500 members; and the 
very numerous communities around us in Middlesex 
and Essex and Norfolk easily bring up the total to 
1,000 members; 1,000 physicians, perhaps one-half of 
the whole regular profession of the State of Massachu- 
setts, are within easy riding distance of this library; 
and very many of them use it; and very many more 
would use it were it possible to provide suitable 
rooms where our numerous acquisitions could be 
on file and where they could be seen without waste 
of time. 
Now this library, in certain respects, as I have no 
doubt others will tell you, is one of the best in the 
country. It is said to be one of the best to work in, 
because it consists largely of the medical knowledge 
of the day; kept up from day to day, and week to 
week, and not buried in obsolete volumes, but is rich 
in that invaluable periodical literature which reflects 
all the advances of medical science. 
I very well remember when I was first beginning 
the profession that gentlemen had no such place to re- 
sort to. I remember myself, when trying to look up 
subjects, vibrating between the Boston Athenaeum, 
which had some medical books, and the Public Li- 
brary, which had other medical books, and the library 
in Temple Place, which belonged to the Improvement 
Society; so that the scanty sources of knowledge that 
existed then were scattered in three places, and great 3 
waste of time and patience was the result. Now we 
have concentrated a vast amount of periodical medical 
literature, and we have at least 1,000 doctors ready 
and willing to use it. It is impossible to conceive that 
we can go on in this way without heiog able to raise a 
sufficient sum to put this library in its proper standing 
before the community, and to have a building which 
shall be worthy of the dignity of our profession, and 
one which, I believe, when once started, will be readily 
supported by ourselves. I can say no more, but will 
call on one who has been almost the founder and father 
of the library to give his exact knowledge of the subject. 
I will ask Dr. J. II. Chadwick now to address you. 
REMARKS OF DR. J. R. CHADWICK. 
Upon me devolves the not ungrateful task of setting 
forth the present conditions of your library, which, in 
the opinion of your officers, warrants the movement to 
secure a fitting building for the preservation of your 
collections and for the promotion of their usefulness. 
That the true purpose and high aims of this Library 
Association may be fully appreciated, let me preface 
my facts by a few general assertions which cannot be 
gainsaid. 
The health and longevity of life in any community 
is dependent in great measure upon the knowledge of 
its medical practitioners. The diploma of M.D. merely 
certifies that its possessor has laid the foundation of 
the knowledge essential to enable him to combat dis- 
ease and death ; upon the superstructure he must labor 
to the end of his days. 
In the early years of practice few men can afford to 
buy or even give shelf-room to a tenth part of the books 
that they need ; no man, whatever his means, can possi- 
bly acquire all. A library is consequently indispensa- 
ble in every centre of population, or the health and 4 
lives of the community will be jeopardized by the ig- 
norance of its medical practitioners. 
Jt is only through concerted action in some such as- 
sociation as tills, owned by the profession, collected 
from the profession, sustained by the profession, man- 
aged for the profession, that ready access is ensured 
to medical literature. This Library Association was 
started twenty-three years ago by some among us then 
struggling for fame and practice, to fill the want which 
we keenly felt. We have labored early and late to 
increase our resources, until the meagre volumes 
that only half filled our shelves in the two rooms 
in Hamilton Place have increased until they not 
only fill our building in Boylston Place but have 
overflowed by thousands into the crematory at Forest 
Hills. 
My last annual report showed that our library con- 
tained 30,310 volumes (of which 17,431 were of peri- 
odicals) and 25,965 pamphlets. They are all completely 
catalogued by authors, titles and subjects, so that any 
book or journal can be had for reference on demand. 
Our library ranks high among the medical libraries of 
the country, being only surpassed in size by that of the 
Surgeon-General’s Office in Washington, that of the 
College of Physicians in Philadelphia, and that of 
the Academy of Medicine in New York. 
Upon our shelves are preserved for all time the 
libraries of those from among our early associates who 
have laid down their earthly cares. We have the su- 
perb anatomical library collected by our incomparable 
first president, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, which he 
had conned and studied and drawn upon to illuminate 
his lectures at the Medical School during his thirty- 
five years’ tenure of the professorship of anatomy, and 
his many addresses to our societies. Besides these 
may be found the libraries of the late Dr. Calvin Ellis, 5 
Dr. Henry I. Bowditch, Dr. Edward H. Clarke, Dr. 
D. Humphreys Storer, Dr. George C. Shattuck — one 
of our constant benefactors ; those of Dr. Thomas B. 
Curtis and Dr. Francis H. Hooper, both cut off in the 
time of their growth and increasing fame; those of Dr. 
Jacob Bigelow, and his son, Dr. Henry J. Bigelow, the 
most brilliant members of our profession in their re- 
spective epochs ; finally, the rich dermatological library 
of the late Dr. Edward Wigglesworth, who, for twenty- 
two years an active member of the Executive Commit- 
tee, was the most ardent champion of our library, 
contributing without stint of his wisdom and material 
resources to bring us to the position in which we stand 
to-day. Lack of time obliges me to omit more names 
than 1 mentioned. 
We have received from friends and relatives por- 
traits of many early practitioners in this community, 
and of many of our benefactors. Chiefly to be men- 
tioned is the fine portrait of Dr. Samuel Dauforth, by 
Gilbert Stuart; that of Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, 
by Billings ; that of Drs. Henry J. Bigelow, J. B. S. 
Jackson, D. Humphreys Storer and Thomas B. Curtis, 
all by Vinton; that of Dr. John Warren, and many 
others too numerous to mention. It is sad .to think 
that most of these have had to be stored in the Art 
Museum that they may escape the danger from fire, to 
which they would be exposed if allowed to hang upon 
the walls of this building. 
In addition to our obligations to the present and 
future generations of medical practitioners in this 
goodly city of Boston, do we not owe it to these past 
friends and benefactors to see that their treasures be 
properly cared for in a building secure against fire, 
and be made of use to the profession, as was the in- 
tent of their former owners? 
Another quite different field of usefulness, which 6 
we have voluntarily occupied since 1879, was to be- 
come the medium of communication between nurses on 
the one haud and physicians and their patients on the 
other. The directory for nurses, which we have 
carried on for nearly nineteen years, has been of the 
utmost value to this community, and entitles us to a 
warm support from all who have availed themselves 
of it. 
My final mission this evening is to tell you in brief 
of our financial situation and the main features of our 
projected building. 
We own the building on Boylston Place, which is 
assessed at $18,000; we own the lot of 9,000 square 
feet on the corner of St. Botolph and Garrison Streets, 
which is taxed for $25,000; we owe a mortgage of 
$8,500. We have a building fund of $5,000. We 
propose to raise $100,000, which is the estimated cost 
of a suitable building upon the Garrison Street lot. 
Toward this sum we can count upon obtaining at 
least $9,500 (after deducting the mortgage) from the 
sale of our present building, which, with the addition 
of the building fund of $5,000, will give us $14,500 
as a starter. 
We have had preliminary sketches drawn for a 
building three stories in height, covering 6,750 square 
feet of area. In this we shall have special rooms on 
the ground floor for the directory for nurses, and 
perhaps a special reading-room for nurses. In the 
second story the whole front will be a reading-room 
with alcoves, similar to Bates Hall in the Public 
Library, which will be known as Holmes Hall, in 
memory of our first president; a special room for 
journals, another for those who wish to smoke, and a 
small hall for social meetings. In the third story 
there will be three or four halls for society meetings, 
capable of accommodating from forty to five hundred 7 
persons each. The building will be absolutely fire- 
proof. 
This is the scheme in outline for which we ask your 
active, enthusiastic co-operation. 
The President: I will call on Dr. J. C. Warren. 
REMARKS OF DR. J. C. WARREN. 
I am very glad, sir, to come here this evening and 
say something about the project which you have in 
view. I believe it is a most worthy one, and I have 
been surprised that we have not long ago determined 
to take the step that we have finally determined upon. 
It can only be accounted for by the financial situation 
of the country, which has been such an unfavorable 
one for so many years past. 
I)r. Chadwick spoke of the advantages of a library. 
I don’t think they can be dwelt upon too strongly, 
particularly in this age of rapid advancement. I 
suppose it has never been the case in the experience 
of any set of professional men that so vast, so far- 
reaching changes have taken place in the progress of 
medical science in the space of time embraced by our 
professional careers. Any one at all engaged in 
literary pursuits must realize how many standard 
works have been born, lived and died within that 
period, have already been placed upon the upper shelves 
of the libraries and new ones have taken their place. 
Systems of medicine and of surgery have been writ- 
ten and have become antiquated within even the 
period of a decade. One needs, therefore, consider- 
able resources to keep him abreast of the time if he 
wishes to be able to read at his convenience and 
leisure all the latest contributions to medical and surgi- 
cal science, and even a man who is able to purchase 
all that he desires to read will find it a difficult prob- 
lem to have it so arranged in his own home that it is 8 
always at haud when he wishes to read any particular 
volume. In my own experience, having a library of 
several thousand volumes, I have found it more con- 
venient to come across the Common and ask Dr. Brig- 
ham for a book than to hunt around hopelessly for it 
on my shelves, although pretty sure I possess it, and 
during a good deal of hard literary work in the last 
ten years I have found the medical library an invalu- 
able resource. I do not know how I could possibly 
have got along without it. 
Dr. Chadwick has alluded to the educational value 
of ready access to medical literature to members of 
the profession. There are a great many men who 
cannot afford to have large libraries. The majority 
cannot. There are many that can only afford to keep 
the books they have been obliged to buy during the 
period of acquiring their medical education, and yet it 
is necessary for them as well as for the teachers of 
medicine to keep abreast of the times if they will do 
justice by their patients. I think, therefore, we can- 
not dwell too strongly upon the educational value of 
such an institution as this on the mass of the profes- 
sion, and I think that ought practically to be the key- 
note by which we shall approach the public — that we 
do the work which follows that of the medical school. 
The medical school teaches the physician the rudiments 
of medicine; the medical library gives him the op- 
portunity to be always a student and to keep upon a 
far higher level of medical knowledge than he other- 
wise would be able to do. And I think also we can 
use as a forcible argument the advantages which accrue 
from the work done for the nurses of the city. That 
is a public benefit, something which the citizens of 
Boston profit by themselves. 
I will only say this in conclusion, that my set, if you 
wish to call it that, when we were young, took hold 9 
and did a good deal of hard work. Dr. Chadwick has 
not told you half what he has done for this library. 
There were a great many men, contemporaries of his, 
who have done a great deal of public-spirited work. 
I am glad to have this opportunity to say to the com- 
ing generation of young men, that there is a lot of pub- 
lic-spirited work they could do ; if they would come 
forward and each do his share, the stones of the new 
building would pile up upon one another in no time at 
all. 
The President: We all know how much the Medi- 
cal School, the Warren Museum and other institutions 
of learning have owed to the gracious efforts of Dr. 
Warren for the profession, and we hope that he will 
feel he can lend us a hand in this higher method of 
education to which he has so gracefully alluded ; hut 
I feel, with him, that we ought to have help from the 
younger generation, and I am going to call upon a 
gentleman who has been among the most active iu ad- 
vocating this subject, Dr. A. K. Stone. 
REMARKS OF DR. A. K. STONE. 
I don’t know that there is very much to be added 
to what already has been so well said. I belong to 
a set of men who, I think, have used the library a 
great deal, and found out its value. The library is 
of much value to the young man, the man who finds 
it hard work to buy a five or ten dollar book and 
keep it a short time only to find it is out of date, 
yet has got to keep up with the literature of the 
time, study things coming up from time to time, to see 
how many of them are useless and how many useful, 
and to do this he has got to have the resources that 
are presented to him iu the accumulated pile he gets 
at the library. The man who does not get hold of the 
library and sticks to the text-books that he takes with 10 
him from the medical school, and has besides one jour- 
nal, perhaps, that he subscribes to, reminds me of the 
cook on the Back Bay, who, when urged to take some 
of the books in the house and read them, said she had 
no need of any more literature; she read- the “ Lives 
of the Saints ” and Town Topics, and that was amply 
sufficient for her purpose. I think we want all of us 
to take hold and do what little we can to help this 
thing forward, and not be relying on the few books we 
are able to buy ourselves. 
The President: I will now ask one of our oldest 
members to present some resolutions with remarks : Dr. 
F. I. Knight. 
REMARKS OF DR. F. I. KNIGHT. 
It is unnecessary for me to say anything in intro 
ducing these resolutions in addition to what has been 
said, except, just in passing, to emphasize the fact 
which I have encountered in the last few days in 
trying to get money, that most people in the com- 
munity haven’t the slightest idea of what the library 
is, or what it is for, and it will take more than 
one interview to present the subject so that they 
really will comprehend that side of the question which 
Dr. Warren has presented tonight,— the great impor- 
tance to the community indirectly, in fact almost di- 
rectly, in the maintenance of a library of this kind. 
One person with whom I was speaking said, “ What 
is this? Is it a place where the doctors go to smoke 
and read the papers? ” He seemed to think it was a 
kind of club-room and place for recreation, and the 
doctors might as well pay for it all themselves. We 
found before that most of the money raised was given 
to us because we asked for it. It was a personal thing: 
“ I know you, and you want this thing, and I will give 
you the money.” I think most of the former contribu- 11 
tors had very little idea of the importance of the li- 
brary. Rich men must be made to appreciate the fact 
that the library is of very great importance to the pro- 
fession and almost directly to the community, there- 
fore I would preseut these resolutions : 
Resolverl, That a General Committee of not less than 
twenty five (25), with the President as Chairman, and the 
other officers of the Association as members ex officio, 
with power to add to their number, be appointed by the 
Chair to take charge of the raising of funds and the erec- 
tion of a new building. 
Resolved, That from this General Committee an Execu- 
tive Committee of five (5) be appointed by the Chairman, 
to have the entire management of the details of the whole 
subject, and report regularly to the General Committee. 
Resolved, That a Special Committee of three (3) be ap- 
pointed to consider and report upon the question of a site 
for the new building. 
The President: I call upon Dr. George B. Shat- 
tuck, who is the editor of our medical journal, and 
familiar with all periodical literature. 
REMARKS OF DR. G. B. SHATTDCK. 
I fear I shall have to ask the indulgence of the 
company. I think it is one of the disadvantages of 
youth (and I believe I may classify myself as one of 
those young men to whom the President referred, who 
were to be culled upon to speak later), that youth 
has to glean where age has harvested, and I do not 
know exactly what I can say to you that has not 
been already said. Moreover, I feel the disadvan- 
tage of exhorting too vigorously in this matter, for I 
remember the precept that the exhorter should not 
prove to be a castaway (laughter), and it seems to 
me that the subsequent action might be expected 
to be in proportion to the vigor of the exhortation 
(laughter). I think that in everything that has 12 
been paid to tyou, gentlemen, to-night there hap 
been no exaggeration of statement or of appeal. I 
believe unquestionably that the profession should try 
to do all it can itself in this matter, and I have no 
doubt that if we set a good example ourselves we 
shall be able to preach to the laity with a more fruit- 
ful result. Then as to the means of doing that, it 
seems to me there is no stronger argument of our 
needs than to come here to the library itself. It 
speaks for itself. If any one asked, Where are your 
needs and what are your necessities? — if we could get 
him down here we should simply reply: Circumspice 
(Look about you). And it would be enough. Al- 
though classifying myself among the youuger men 
here, I can still recall the beginnings of the library in 
Hamiltou Place. I can look back and see stage by 
stage what has been accomplished since that day. I 
cau recall the great need and want of just such an un- 
dertaking as was then started, and, seeing what has 
been accomplished, I am impressed with the feeling 
to-day that the outlook for our doing still a great deal 
more than has been doue is certainly more hopeful 
than it was at that time for accomplishing what we 
have accomplished up to the present moment. I have 
no doubt if the men who are to-day of about the same 
age and period that those men were who took up this 
matter at that time will take it up with the same in- 
terest and vigor they did then that we shall be able 
to push our aims forward to a most satisfactory con- 
clusion. 
There is one point which has come home to me as 
a trustee of the Bostou Athenaeum and a member of 
the Library Committee there, and that was the transfer 
of all the medical books of the Boston Athenaeum to 
this library. It is a fact that in 1826, I think, per- 
haps seventy odd years ago, the books of The 13 
Second Social or Boston Medical Library, which 
was started in 1805, were transferred, after a some- 
what languishing period of existence of that body, to 
the Athenaeum, and formed the nucleus of what sub- 
sequently became the medical department of the 
Athenaeum. Now the Athenaeum has gone on since 
that time purchasing a certain quantity of medical 
books up to within a few years, and Dr. Cheever 
referred to the fact that he used to go to the Athe- 
naeum — that was one of the sources of medical books 
at one time for him. Now it is only within a year or 
two that the Athenaeum has transferred all its medical 
books to this medical library, recoguizing that this 
was the depot and centre of medical literature for this 
State, for this neighborhood, and they have given up 
buying any more medical books. In the same way 
they are carrying out the same method with reference 
to books on law. They consider that the library of 
the Bar Association should be the depository for a 
special class of books of that kind. Now that shows 
what the general feeling in the community is getting 
to be. There are to be special literary centres, and 
we are being recognized as the custodians and guard- 
ians of medical learning. I think we can present our- 
selves now to the community in that way; that is al- 
ready becoming recognized. We have duties; we 
have responsibilities in that direction, and it is right 
and proper that we should be aided and helped by the 
community in discharging those duties and responsi- 
bilities now that the public itself puts such duties and 
responsibilities upou us. We can go to men and state 
our position from that point of view and I think it 
will be listened to. 
Dr. Holmes in that delightful address which he 
delivered when we inaugurated this building, some 
seventeen years ago, told us that it was our duty to 14 
offer the widest and largest hospitality to medical 
literature of all kinds, and we certainly have en- 
deavored to live up to that injunction; but the result 
of our trying to live up to that injunction is that we 
have outgrown these premises by our accumulations, 
even in these seventeen years, and at that time ap- 
parently we considered that we were pretty well fixed 
for a long time to come. He also, I remember, spoke 
of its being one of our duties by our collection of 
books on medical learning to illuminate all the dark 
places, and in that way to antagonize those pseudologi- 
cal fancies which had, and I regret to say still have, a 
tendency to flourish in this community. We may do 
our best to illuminate all the dark places, but as fast 
as we unhorse one pseudological fancy another leaps 
into the saddle and rides more recklessly, so that if we 
are going to carry out that injunction we shall cer- 
tainly require all the accommodation for learning and 
literature that we can possibly attain unto. I think 
Dr. Warren’s suggestion to you — that this library 
should be regarded as a post-graduate medical school — 
was also a very good one, and I think that is an- 
other argument with which we cau go to the people 
outside of the profession, and which ought to prove 
effective. 
In closing I would merely give expression to one 
thought which perhaps is sometimes overlooked, that 
is, that we may regard this library as a sort of medical 
literary storage-warehouse. It does relieve all of us 
of a great burden in that respect. I don’t know but 
that point comes home to me perhaps a little more 
strongly than to most of you, but my main object is to 
get rid of books and periodicals rather than to acquire 
them, and it is quite as much a question with me of 
the advantage of being able to put books and periodi- 
cals into the library as of the advantage of being able 15 
to take them out. That is rather a homely considera- 
tion but a practical one, and one we ought to take 
home to ourselves in considering the many things that 
the library does for us. 
The President : I am sure that we have received 
some new ideas. I hope they will germinate. We 
do not, however, wish to confine ourselves only to 
native talent, but we want to think of other places. 
There are other cities than Boston in America. 
Some of them have fine libraries, and in some of 
them the medical profession is in a very flourishing 
condition. We are fortunate, I think, in having with 
us now a gentleman who has seen a good deal of 
other places, and who can tell us what be thinks had 
better be done to help us on here in Boston. I would 
ask Dr. Councilman if he would say a few words. 
I feel in Boston not as one coming from a strange 
city, Mr. President, but already as one of the oldest in- 
habitants. With regard to the medical library, I can 
only speak of the enormous service the library has been 
to me and to the men working in the laboratories here. 
The special value of the library is in its sets of journals 
and monographs; those are absolutely necessary for any 
one doing scientific work, and very necessary frequently 
to have them almost immediately at hand, and we have 
found this library really invaluable to us. I am very 
much in sympathy with the idea of a new home for the 
profession, because I understand that the new build- 
ing which it is proposed to erect will not only be a 
library but serve as a medical centre of the profes- 
sion in the city, will be more or less of a medical 
home where the various societies can meet and where 
the men can go, and I feel sure also that the medical 
profession will do a great deal towards raising the 
REMARKS OF DR. W. T. COUNCILMAN. 16 
amount of money necessary for the building. I don’t 
think that they should be called upon to raise all, but 
certainly the medical profession themselves should con- 
tribute very largely to that building, because the suc- 
cess of the men iu the profession is very largely due to 
this library, and I believe that the profession will 
recognize that. 
The President: We must have in this move- 
ment the co-operation of what Dr. Henry J. Bigelow 
used to call the “ active young men,” and I would ask 
you to listen for a moment to a statement of one of 
the younger members in regard to the value of this 
library and what the younger members can do for it. 
I will ask Dr. Frederic J. Cotton to speak. 
REMARKS OF DR. FREDERIC J. COTTON. 
I can only give my testimony as to the actual work- 
ing efficiency of the library. This has impressed itself 
on me, especially in comparing the conditions here with 
those in Vienna. While there, in the preparation of a 
paper, I had to look up with some care the literature 
of a special subject. First, I went to the hospital lib- 
rary, a subscription reading-room, much used, which 
contains the current numbers and files of the standard 
periodicals. The French literature is, however, poorly 
represented, the Italian hardly at all, and the English 
and American by one periodical, the British Medical 
Journal, I think. Consequently, there were many ref- 
erences I did not get. 
After that I went to the University, and found the 
books there rather difficult of access, and the catalog- 
ing rather unhandy for the stranger. I finally got, 
after two or three visits, only two or three volumes I 
wanted. 
The best library in Vienna is that of the Gesellschaft 
der Aerzte, but that is not open to the general public. 17 
I therefore submitted my list through a friend who is 
a member of the society, but got nothing I had not 
previously seen. The Hof-Bibliothek I did not try, 
as this same friend told me I should find few or no 
periodicals there. 
In the end, I had to publish with a comparatively 
faulty knowledge of the work previously done on 
the subject, and my bibliography was confessedly 
incomplete. 1 do not know that I could have got- 
ten all my references at the medical library here, 
but I do know that I should not have had to spend 
a week or more hunting for them, and if they were 
not here I could have gotten them from Washington 
through the medical library at little expense of time 
or money. 
Among the men whose work here I know, I recall 
but one case where a man has not in some way gotten 
what he wanted by asking Dr. Brigham. That is a 
case where he could not get a volume from Washing- 
ton — it was too large to send. 
This comparison of our facilities with those of such 
a medical centre as Vienna is certainly gratifying, and 
it seems to me we should not forget, in using the 
library, to take a certain pride in its efficiency. 
Dr. Warren: Dr. Chadwick alluded to the other 
libraries, instaucing the one at Washington, the Col- 
lege of Physicians and Surgeons in Philadelphia, and 
the Academy of Medicine in New York. I think any 
oue who has visited those institutions will see at once 
the immense advantage of having a medical centre in 
a large city. The College of Physicians and Surgeons 
is a very old and highly respected institution and the 
rallying point of the profession in Philadelphia and 
perhaps of the whole State of Pennsylvania. The 
Academy in New York is a most luxurious place, 
where all kinds of society meetings can be held, gath- 18 
eriugs of medical men of whatever nature, and has 
every comfort and convenience, and it seems to me 
that not only from the educational point of view but, 
to a certain extent, from a business and perhaps also 
a social point of view they are of incalculable advan- 
tage. I can see how a house like that would be a 
gathering point where the physicians of the city and 
those of the suburbs, who are so numerous as Dr. 
Cheever has pointed out, could meet. Men coming 
from distant parts of the State would come here and 
make their purchases, have their purchases perhaps 
sent to this place, stop and read the latest literature 
and see many of the men. I can see how the library 
could conduct a series of educational lectures open to 
the profession at large — medical smoke talks. The 
field enlarges very greatly when one begins to see 
what the possibilities of such a building are. 
Dr. Chadwick : I think perhaps it ought to be 
explained what this Committee on Site means. We 
have a site on the corner of Garrison and Botolph 
Streets which we have held nearly ten years. When 
we bought it we believed, and most of us still believe, 
it is a very good site, probably as good a site as this 
Association can afford. There are, however, quite a 
number of men who have thought the site was not 
worthy of the Association, and that it would not be 
convenient, so we have thought it better at the outset 
not to have it supposed that we were wedded to that 
site. There are changes taking place. It is possible 
that a better site may be obtained which will be within 
our means. We therefore wish it understood that 
while we have had sketches made for the building on 
the lot on Garrison Street, we are not wedded to it, 
and wish the committee to go over the ground and 
see if a better site can be secured. That is the reason 
for the appointment of that committee. 19 
Thk President: Are you ready for the question? 
Those in favor of the passage of these resolutions 
will please raise their hands. Contrary minded. It 
is a unanimous vote. In accord with the resolutions 
the President is called upon to announce the committee, 
which consists first of the officers of the Society, the 
Executive Committee, and the following gentlemen : 
Drs. J. C. Warren, J. C. White, H. P. Bowditch, 
Clarence J. Blake, F. C. Shattuck, A. T. Cabot, G. 
W. Gay, Harold Williams, H. L. Burrell, A. K. Stone, 
W. N. Bullard, M. Storer, J. A. Tanner, E. H. 
Stevens, H. F. Hewes, making with the Executive 
Committee and the officers of the Society twenty-five. 
The appointment of the gentlemen who are to serve 
as an executive committee of five can very well come 
later; but it is important that the President should 
announce the committee of three on the site, so that 
they may be busily at work looking about to see if 
they can find any better location, as Dr. Chadwick 
says, within our means. The Committee on the Site 
will consist of Drs. J. B. Ayer, Arthur H. Nichols 
and W. L. Burrage.