Medical Convention of Illinois

To the Medical Profession of Illinois. At a meeting of a number of the Physicians and Surgeons of the State of Illinois, convened in Springfield, on the 9th of June, 1840, for the purpose of making preliminary arrangements for the organization of a State Medical Society, the undersigned were appointed a committee of correspondence, and as such, directed to address you on that subject. It was proposed that the medical men of the State of Illinois, should assemble in Convention, at Springfield, on the first Monday of December next, and then and there proceed to the complete organization of the Illinois State Medical Society-the convention to be composed of one or more delegates from each County in the State. This proposition was unanimously adopted; and we now call upon you to cooperate with us in the consummation of so desirable a result. Hitherto we have been like a vessel cast upon a boisterous ocean, without compass of helm; we have acted solitary and alone, without harmony or concert; but when we see hundreds of our fellow citizens and worthy friends, annually sacrificed by the empirical prescriptions of charletan [charlatan] practitioners, on the altars of ignorance, erected within the very temple of Æsculapius, by rude and unskilful [unskillful] hands, is it not time for us to act?-We think so: not however, by declaring war against mountebanks and uneducated pretenders to the art of healing within our borders; but by digesting a plan that shall be calculated in its legitimate operations to benefit the people, instruct the unlearned, improve ourselves, and elevate the entire profession above all mercenary considerations to a station of superior mental, moral and medical excellence. Already do our forests groan under the axeman's hand, and our prairies swarm with a busy, free and enterprising population; in Agriculture and Commerce, we are rapidly approximating to the level of the oldest States: our citizens are rearing Colleges and Universities

for mental culture; our Divines and Lawyers have already attained a high rank and an elevated standing; and, shall medicine be wholly neglected? Is law of more consequence than medicine or property more valuable than life? If not, let us not be behind our sister States in our efforts to improve our profession, and place it on a level with that of law. We ask not the protection of legal power, nor do we require the strong arm of legislative enactment to sustain us. We place ourselves before the public on our true merits, having a strong and abiding confidence in the wisdom of the people. All we require is a concerted effort, to enable us to diffuse true and useful medical knowledge-and this we ask. It is due to the profession and to humanity, now, and in all time to come. We hope then to see a general attendance on the day proposed.

J. C. BENNETT, of Nauvoo. J. TODD, of Springfield.

C. V. DYER, of Chicago. W. S. WALLACE, do

A. W. BOWEN, of Juliet. D. TURNEY, of Fairfield.

M. HELM, of Springfield C. F. HUGHES, of Rochester.

E. H. HERRYMAN, of Springfield I. S. BERRY, of Vandalia.

F. A. McNEIL, do B. H. HART, of Alton.

Quarter-Master-General's Office,

Nauvoo, Illinois, Sept. 25, 1840.

The Editorial Corps of the State of Illinois, friendly to the medical profession, the advancement of science, or the diffusion of true medical lore, are respectfully requested to publish the above notice in their respective journals-the invitation is not confined to a mere delegation, or the elite of the profession, but is extended to the entire Corps Medicale of Illinois; and it is sincerely hoped that there will be a great gathering of the Faculty, at the time and place above mentioned. J. C. BENNETT, Secretary to the above meeting.