Concerning the Aims and Methods 
of Hospital Alumni 
Societies. 
BY 
ADOLPH RUPP, M. D., 
President of the Charity Hospital Alumni Society, 
New York. 
REPRINTED PROM THE 
Keto ¥orU jf&etrtcal .Journal 
for May 25, 1895. Reprinted from the Neic York Medical Journal 
for May 25, 1895. 
CONCERNING THE AIMS AND METHODS OF 
HOSPITAL ALUMNI SOCIETIES* 
By ADOLPH RUPP, M. D , 
PRESIDENT OF THE CHARITY HOSPITAL ALUMNI SOCIETY, NEW YORK. 
If all were true that is said and applauded at the 
dinners of the different hospital alumni societies, then 
those who have a suspicion of the imperfection of human 
institutions would be treated to many manifestations of 
sentiment that might well puzzle and confound them, 
although they could fall back on the authority of so sturdy 
and common-sense a philosopher as Samuel Johnson, who 
says, “ In all sublunary things there is something to be 
wished, which we must wish in vain.” 
At those dinners, as you all know, the hospitals are 
glorified, the hospital men praise themselves and are 
praised by others, and the alumni societies are lauded on 
account of the good they do. 
Certainly none of us will say that all this buoyant ex- 
hilaration is without reasonable foundation. Considering 
the purity of feeling and the joyous swing of thought and 
* Read at the March, 1895, meeting of the Society of the Alumni 
of Charity Hospital. 
COPYKIGHT, 1895, BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 2 
CONCERNING THE AIMS AND METHODS OE 
sentiment which prevail on these occasions, all seems well 
timed and placed. 
Long may these annual and biennial reunions at the 
dinner table continue ! 
Other places, however, and other times justify and even 
invite the consideration and discussion of other thoughts 
and sentiments from other points of view. Then, too, 
where there is life, problems bearing on the aims and 
methods of such societies are always presenting themselves 
for consideration or reconsideration. 
This being the last but one meeting of the season, I 
may be pardoned for bringing to your attention a few 
facts and fancies concerning our methods in the manage- 
ment of our society, and which I offer only in the way of 
suggestion. What I shall have to say may have occurred 
to many of you too. Indeed, some of these problems we 
have attempted to solve, and with more or less success. A 
few others have been dismissed by us after hasty and un- 
satisfactory discussion, as not sufficiently ripe for serious 
attention. 
Article IT of the Constitutkm of The Society of the 
Alumni of City (Charity) Hospital boldly and baldly 
tells us that “ The object (aims) of this society shall be 
the advancement of medicine and surgery, and the promo- 
tion of social intercourse among its members.” 
No one will challenge the excellence of such aims, and 
none can be more consistent with self-respectful modesty. 
Moreover, these aims are permeated by the spirit of the 
old text, ever new with vigorous vitality, and therefore 
always true : “ None of us liveth unto himself.” Such are 
our ideals! 
What are our methods by means of which we seek and 
hope to realize them ? We have three committees to help 
us to realize our ideals : (l) A committee to look after HOSPITAL ALUMNI SOCIETIES. 
3 
the work, etc., which is to advance the science and art of 
medicine and surgery ; (2) a committee to take care of 
new members ; and (3) a committee to take care of all our 
social arrangements. Besides, we have the usual executive 
officers, a president and a vice-president, a secretary, and a 
treasurer. 
But all this machinery amounts to only a little at best 
if the material it works for he inefficient, or lacks a sympa- 
thetic and enthusiastic co-operative spirit. Allow me to 
say a few words concerning the character and personnel of 
our regular meetings. Too often we see only the same 
faces and hear only the same voices; and, although all is of 
first-rate quality, our meetings can not under such circum- 
stances finally become anything else than monotonous. Look 
at our transactions and I think you will find this to be true. 
The men who have shown most interest in our doings 
by attendance, by the reading of papers, and participation 
in discussions have been those who left the hospital be- 
tween the years 1875 and 1885. This is not as it ought 
to be. The circle is too limited. Why do the men who 
left the hospital prior to 1875, and those who have left 
since 1885, manifest so little sympathy for the doings of 
this society ? Perhaps they do not know of our exist- 
ence as they should. I would therefore suggest that the 
members of the committee on new members he asked to 
enlarge their sphere of usefulness. They might, besides 
passing on the credentials of candidates for membership, 
look around for candidates, old practitioners as well as the 
youngest graduates from the hospital. In doing this not 
altogether easy but pleasant work a number of ideas might 
suggest themselves to their business faculties which possi- 
bly would prove fruitful for the good name of our society 
and its better operation in realizing the ideals we have 
made our object. 4 
CONCERNING THE AIMS AND METHODS OF 
Another suggestion that I would make refers to the 
awkward w:y in which our guests have often been treated. 
It might be well for our entertainment committee to retire 
with our guests when our executive sessions are to be of 
such a nature that absolute secrecy must be the order. We 
have no right to make our guests feel out of place. They 
should be made to feel that they are our friends and 
equals. 
And what can the rank and file of the society do in the 
way of seconding th? efforts of the science committee 
toward advancing the science and art of medicine and sur- 
gery, especially so in ways that will make our meetings 
worth the time of attending them ? “ Time,” says Frank- 
lin, “ is the stuff that life is made of ”—and we medical 
men should be careful not to waste that which it is our 
function to rescue and prolong. 
An alumnus of our hospital, my senior by about ten 
years, once asked me, “ What does your society accom- 
plish ? ” He also intimated that we could do him no 
good, that whatever time he might give to our society 
would be lost, and that his time was gaining in value as he 
was growing older. I could not reply to this argument, be- 
cause the man, it seemed to me, was as uncomplimentary 
to himself as to us. He could not appreciate our ideals as 
we have striven to do, and yet we want and need just such 
men who know how to appreciate their time. If we can 
not teach them anything, they can teach us a good deal 
along many lines of medical science and art. And here 
excuse me for bringing in a few words on this head from 
.Sir Thomas Browne : “ There are infirmities not only of the 
body but of the soul and fortunes, which do require the 
merciful hand of our abilities. I can not condemn a man 
for ignorance, but behold him with as much pity as I do 
Lazarus. It is no greater charity to clothe his body than HOSPITAL ALUMNI SOCIETIES. 
5 
apparel the nakedness of his soul. Tt is an honorable ob- 
ject to see the reasons of other men wear our liveries, 
and their borrowed understandings do homage to the 
bounty of ours.” 
We are practical men, and as such we have interests in 
common which reflect on us individually. We also have re- 
sponsibilities to take care of; and we dare not shirk them 
if we would be live and earnest men and good citizens. 
Along these lines our doings here can he a gain to our- 
selves, and indirectly beneficial to our professional confreres 
and the public at large. 
A German professor and wit of the last century says : 
u People amuse themselves with uncertainties and call it 
discussion.” There is as much truth in that hit to-day as 
there was one hundred years ago. Put if we take care not 
to allow inane vanities to run away with our duties our 
discussions will contain something better than straw- 
stuffed amusement; and though our reportings, read- 
ings, and discussions may not send science forward with 
leaps and hounds, our doings, we may hope, will help us 
in keeping our senses open and “ free from the mists of 
prejudice and the paralysis of cant.” This free and open 
sense is on a level with originality and discovery, and only 
comes after them in importance. 
Egyptian civilization shut out new ideas and facts to 
save its individuality, and died. Greek culture finally as- 
sumed a too ardent hastiness for the discussion of something 
new, forgetting what it had acquired and done in bygone 
centuries, and the glories of Greece crumbled into forget- 
fulness and a name, because the Greeks had shut their 
senses against what had at other times made them great 
among nations. Our culture individually is only dense 
and prejudiced if we chase after only what is new and shut 
our minds against the just claims of what is old. What is 6 
CONCERNING THE AIMS AND METHODS OF 
true of Egypt and of Greece as great nations is psycho- 
logically true for each of us and all collectively. We 
must work both ways—at the new and at the old. Why 
were the beneficent virtues of ether left unapplied for cen- 
turies after its first discovery ? (Discovered 1515 by Va- 
lerius Cordus—applied thoroughly and widely after 1845 
by Morton, Jackson, and others.) Just because the general 
medical mind was not prepared to see and accept the pow- 
ers within its reach. 
On the other hand, can we not, even the youngest 
among us, recall new, loudly commended and recommended 
therapeutic measures which left many medical men and 
many lay people in very much the same disappointed plight 
in which the dog was after he lost his bone because he 
snapped at its exaggerated reflection in the water ? Of 
course, all the other medical societies have these or similar 
aims—the advancement and diffusion of our particular 
branch of science, philosophy, and art. But they lack that 
bond of fellowship of service which is common to us and 
our hospital alumni sociefies, and which makes us a spe- 
cialized group of men. We all enjoyed the rare opportuni- 
ties of observation in a large hospital before beginning our 
careers as private practitioners. Some of us have drifted 
into the various specialties, some of us are physicians 
and others are surgeons, and only a few of us are general 
practitioners. 
This being the case—by the judicious management of 
the science committee, seconded by the ready co-operation 
of all—we can each of us carry away more from these 
meetings which keep us in the swim of the great, full 
stream of medicine than v/e can from the meetings of any 
of the other societies, which all have special tendencies, and 
which are so often in their doings and tendencies like rivu- 
lets running away from the parent river. HOSPITAL ALUMNI SOCIETIES. 
7 
Of course, the other societies have other uses and in- 
terests for us all which after a manner bring us in touch 
with the profession at large. 
With one more reminder, coupled with a suggestion, T 
shall end my speech. By vote, at last month’s meeting, 
the officers and standing committees are its executive com- 
mittee. The powers conferred are great and may easily be 
abused. But the powers conferred as they are, properly 
and fairly worked, will facilitate and expedite all our rou- 
tine business, and besides heighten and lengthen the social 
part of our gatherings. 
The specific characteristic of the government of our so- 
ciety is “ committee government.” The offices of presi- 
dent and vice-president are simply and purely honorary. 
Our president only presides at our meetings—all the rest 
that he presumes to do he does by the courtesy of the 
committees and your acquiescence and kindness. 
I would therefore suggest, on account of all this, and 
for the better orientation of all of us, that the names of all 
officers and the names of all the men serving on the various 
committees be printed on the reverse side of all the notice 
cards. 
I thank you for your courteous attention and hope that 
we may all meet again next November. The New York Medical Journal. 
A WEEKLY REVIEW OF MEDICINE. 
EDITED BY 
FRANK P. FOSTER, M.D. 
THE PHYSICIAN who would keep abreast with the advances in 
medical science must read a live weekly medical journal, in which 
scientific facts are presented in a clear manner; one for which the 
articles are written by men of learning, and by those who are good and 
accurate observers ; a journal that is stripped of every feature irrelevant 
to medical science, and gives evidence of being carefully and conscien- 
tiously edited ; one that bears upon every page the stamp of desire to 
elevate the standard of the profession of medicine. Such a journal 
fulfills its mission—that of educator—to the highest degree, for not 
only does it inform its readers of all that is new in theory and practice, 
but, by means of its correct editing, instructs them in the very important 
yet much-neglected art of expressing their thoughts and ideas in a clear 
and correct manner. Too much stress can not be laid upon this feature, 
so utterly ignored by the “ average ” medical periodical. 
Without making invidious comparisons, it can be truthfully stated 
that no medical journal in this country occupies the place, in these par- 
ticulars, that is held by The New York Medical Journal. No 
other journal is edited with the care that is bestowed on this; none 
contains articles of such high scientific value, coming as they do from 
the pens of the brightest and most learned medical men of America. A 
glance at the list of contributors to any volume, or an examination of 
any issue of the Journal, will attest the truth of these statements. It 
is a journal for the masses of the profession, for the country as well as 
for the city practitioner; it covers the entire range of medicine and 
surgery. A very important feature of the Journal is the number and 
character of its illustrations, which are unequaled by those of any other 
journal in the world. They appear in frequent issues, whenever called 
for by the article which they accompany, and no expense is spared to 
make them of superior excellence. 
Subscription price, $5.00 per annum. Volumes begin in 
January and July. 
PUBLISHED BY 
D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue, New York.