The Society’s Library

Abstract

Amongst all the inventions,attainments and discoveries which have marked Man’s strange progression from Darwinian prehistory to this modern, hectic but stimulating civilisation, the realisation of his ability to communicate his thoughts and ideas in permanent form must rank extremely high. Few will deny that the discovery of writing, the manufacture of paper and the invention of the printing press are among the greatest landmarks in human history. Certainly in Medicine we can consider books to be amongst the most useful and basic of the tools of our trade—for here we can draw upon the wisdom and learning of preceding ages and it is here that we have contact with the minds of those generations of our predecessors who have risen and passed away. We in this Society rightly value the traditions of our past and I make no apology in presenting briefly some facts and some thoughts on that greatest of our links with the past— and not only with the past but with the future as well—our Library. I should like to tell you something of its history and of its present state; I should like to whet your appetite for exploration by exhibiting a few of its treasures and I should like to evaluate the place of the Library in the Society’s life, and its prospects for the future.