Medical Department of Columbian College and met at the College. Eventually the Society admitted other physicians. It seems to have ceased to exist in 1832.*

The present MEDICAL ASSOCIATION OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA was formed in January, 1833. Its object was to provide a code of ethics and fee bill, both of which were denied to the Medical Society by its charter, sections I and IV. It has been held by some members of the Society that by its charter it is prevented from disciplining its members for any offence committed outside of its actual meetings. As an example it may be mentioned that a charge of bribery in which there was a public scandal was brought against a member of the Society in 1868. The Society ordered an investigation which was duly made. The investigating committee made a report recommending that the offending member be reprimanded by the President of the Society. The Society approved the recommendation and the reprimand was duly administered. But Dr. S. C. Busey strenuously objected to any action being taken in the case, claiming that the charter forbade it. His efforts and those of a few others, however, failed to prevent the reprimand.

After the second charter had been approved, the Society held a meeting, July 30, 1838, and the following resolution was adopted:

"Resolved that, whereas the Act of Congress enti-. tled An Act to revive with amendments an Act to incorporate the Medical Society of the District of Columbia, passed 7 July, 1838, did not finally pass both branches of Congress and receive the approval of the President until five days after the first Monday in July, 1838, the day designated in the charter for the first meeting of the Society; therefore this day has been assumed for the first meeting,

Toner's Oration, p. 23.

it being the earliest period after the passage and approval of the Act at which the members of the Society could be notified and assembled. This course has been adopted from the necessity of the case, and as in accordance with the design of the charter."

The next meeting was held August 8th, and eight members attended. A committee was appointed to revise the constitution, by-laws and rules; it consisted of Drs. Thos. Sewall, J. C. Hall, H. Lindsly, N. Worthington and O. Fairfax (of Alexandria). Monday, January 8, 1839, the annual meeting was held at the City Hall, at which there was just a quorum. Officers were elected for the year. The Committee on Revision of the Constitution made report which was adopted. The Society ordered that the report should be printed and a copy of the revised document sent to each member. From this time for many years the minutes show little more than that the Society met, that there were so many members present at the meeting, and that officers were elected; occasionally some other statement is inserted; as, for instance, that there was "no quorum." July 3, 1843, a letter from Dr. J. B. S. Jackson, of Harvard Medical School, was read, giving an account of the results of the autopsy made on Hon. Hugh S. Legare, late Secretary of State.

"The first breeze which ruffled the calmness of the Society's existence is noted in the records as occurring at the meeting of January 13, 1849. Dr. J. C. Hall, the president, suggested the propriety of taking some action in regard to the appointment of delegates to the American Medical Association, whereupon Dr. Lindsly offered a resolution authorizing the president to appoint five members as delegates. Dr. Young offered an amendment instructing the president to make his selection from the profession at large, as distinguished from the professors of colleges, on which amendment there were two ayes, four noes, three

members not voting. A reconsideration of the amendment was moved, this was laid on the table and the original motion was carried without amendment. This incident illustrates a phase of feeling which has all but passed away. The rivalry between the colleges is a generous one, without any feeling or jealousy, and the profession at large so outnumbers the professors in colleges that they need never fear being controlled by them. The Society may be said to have passed through its "storms and stress" period and to have reached the open sea of generous feeling, broad aims and united purpose. ""*

From 1838 to 1864 the Society met at the time of the regular semi-annual meetings, and occasional special meetings, mostly memorial meetings to deceased members, were also held. With 1864, however, a new régime came in, and during that year fifteen meetings were held. The difference is shown by the minutes. The first volume of the Transactions of the Society under the second charter is a manuscript volume of 330 pages with an excellent index, made up by Dr. A. F. A. King. The volume covers the period from January, 1838, to October 31, 1866—both dates inclusive-over twenty-eight years. The first 169 pages carry the record to May 30, 1865, twenty-seven years, leaving the remaining 161 pages for the remaining seventeen months. This striking difference in space indicates the difference in the activity of the Society in its scientific work. The 161 pages constitute the record made during the Secretaryship of Dr. King.

PLACES OF MEETING OF THE MEDICAL SOCIETY.

During the ninety-one years of its existence the Society has met at many different places. As already stated, the first meeting, preliminary to the formation of the Society, was held in Tennison's Hotel, on Pennsylvania Avenue,

Johnston, in Trans. 75th Anniv., p. 44.