On the Study of Epidemiology. Inaugural Address of Session of 1894-95

our knowledge of disease, and especially of the particular class of disease which this society was founded to study. I fully recognise, therefore, that it is no slight honour to succeed those who have in the past shed lustre upon the society's proceedings, and I am none the less conscious how greatly it adds to the responsibilities of one who, by your favour, is called to the presidential chair. Not the least of these responsibilities is the choice of a subject which may fittingly engage your attention on the occasion of the first meeting of the session, for, thanks to the activity of our secretaries, each topic of current interest is brought to our notice during the ordinary meetings of our society, and where the harvest is so well gathered it is no easy task to find a portion of the field which has not already yielded to you its fruits. I may, perhaps, be pardoned if, under these circumstances, I content myself with a brief reference to the intentions of the founders of epidemiological study and indicate the position of our knowledge in respect to a few of the conditions which affect epidemic disease. The study of epidemiology has been strongly urged by Hecker in 1832. In his Address to the Physicians of Germany, with which we are familiar in connection with his work on the Epidemics of the Middle Ages, he stated