THE
ADDRESS IN MEDICINE,
BEING
AN ESSAY ON THE PRINCIPAL CAUSES WHICH UNITE
IN PRODUCING AND DIFFUSING DISEASE;
READ BEFORE
THE 17TH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
OF THE
PROVINCIAL MEDICAL AND SURGICAL ASSOCIATION,
HELD AT WORCESTER AUGUST 1ST AND 2ND, 1949.
BY CHARLES WILLIAM BELL, M.D.,
Knight Commander of the Persian Order of the Lion and Sun; Physician to the Manchester Royal Infirmary; Consulting Physician to the Ardwick and Ancoats Dispensary; late Physician Io Her Majesty's Embassy to Persia, in Medical charge of the British Detachment serving in Persia; late Physician to the Royal Household of Persia, and to the Persian Armies; formerly House Surgeon to the Middlesex Hospital.
Sir and Gentlemen,—When the founders of this Association instituted the annual Address in Medicine, its objects were fixed and definite; they were to collect and analyze the various contributions of the preceding year to medical science, and to present to the members a mass of valuable information, which few of those occupied with the anxieties of practice could afford time to acquire for themselves.
Thus to select only what was really valuable from the mass of works and periodicals, relating to medicine in all its branches, that yearly issue from the press of various countries, was no ordinary task; for to distinguish new matter from old, truth from false theory, originality from plagiarism, required a rare union of industry and high literary attainments with great professional knowledge and practical judgment.
So well, however, was this difficult duty performed, season after season, by the various members by whom it was undertaken, that these Retrospects were highly appreciated by the profession in general, and thus the devotion of a separate periodical publication
VOL. XVII. B
