tubal gestation, he would (in this as in other details) have learned to know his limits and be ready to seek further advice. With the revival and extension of education the benefits of specialism will become more widespread, and to this end the efforts of colleges and hospitals should be directed. The organization of societies for the study of particular diseases has been of late a very notable feature in tho professional life of this country. Since the foundation of the Ophthalmological

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... , more than a dozen associations have been formed, and their union in a triennial congress has proved a remarkable success. These societies stimulate work, promote good-fellowship, and ¡lid materially iu maintaining tho standard of professional scholarship. They are nearly all exclusive bodies, limited in membership, and demanding for admission evidence of special fitness. This point is sometimes urged against them ; but the members exercise no arbitary privilege in asking of candidates familiarity with the subject, and evidence of ability to contribute to the general store of knowledge. In some of the specialties these societies have been particularly useful in disciplining men who have traduced, not the code, but tho unwritten traditions of our craft, acting as of they were vendors of wares to be hawked in the market-place. Our own Society may be regarded as the outcome of a notable revival, during the past few years, of interest in the study of the diseases of children. The existence of a special journal devoted to pediatrics, and the successful issue of a large cyclopedia of the diseases of children testify to the appreciation on the part of the profession of the necessity for the more accurate study of this branch. This body offers to men who are working and teaching in pediatrics are opportunity of knowing each other, of discussing subjects of common interest, and through the medium of their publications making general the more special details of value iu practice. The programme before you indicates clearly that we are all workers in general mediciue ; and may the character of the papers and the discussions bo the best justification of the existence of an organization devoted to tho study of a particular section in that field.