Board of Trustees and other friends met in the hospital parlors, where the exercises were opened by Mrs. Frederick H. Holt, President of the Board of Trustees, as follows: REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES. THE Board of Managers of the Womans Hospital and Infants Home is most happy to welcome its guests today. The interest in this hospital which your presence attests is highly valued. We would avail ourselves of this opportunity to publicly thank the friends who have been so generous to us. Owing to this generosity we have been able to accomplish much in the past few months. One gift we are met today to celebrate, that of the "Grace Whitney Hoff Research Laboratory," and for the fulfilment of the program incident thereto I will call upon our President of the Medical Board, Doctor Walter P. Manton. REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE MEDICAL BOARD. DOCTOR MANTON: Madam President, Ladies and Gentlemen:-I had not expected to take part in the exercises this afternoon but I am very glad indeed to add my word of welcome to those present and to state the object of this gathering. There is a story going the rounds to the effect that a man entered a bookstore and inquired of the clerk if he had anything on natural history, as he desired to give a brother who was a zoologist something on that subject. "O yes," replied the clerk, "we have just what you want," and handed him a volume on the back of which was printed the word anthology, remarking, "all about ants." You have been invited to come here today, not to be told all about hospitals but to see how a modern, up-to-date hospital looks, and to judge for yourselves if, under the conditions which you may see, the hospital is not the best place in which to care for the sick. There is a somewhat wrong impression prevalent regarding the purposes of the hospital which, as far as we are concerned today, may be corrected at this time. While the primary function of the hospital is to care for the sick it is also a place where may be learned how to care for the sick, prevent disease and, when disease is present, to find out what it consists of, how it originated, its symptoms and course and how it may best be treated so that the patient may be quickest and most successfully healed and restored to health. It goes without saying that disease may best be studied when a large number of afflicted people are brought together under one roof and where the facilities for such study are modern and adequate. In this Womans Hospital we have of late years accomplished much in certain directions, but it has long been evident that we must have a well equipped laboratory in order that investigations might be carried out which would give us a better insight into disease-processes and thus enable us to better care for the patients under our charge. Unfortunately means have been wanting for this purpose until a little over a year ago when, through the generosity of Mrs. Grace Whitney Hoff, a sum of money was placed at our disposal for the establishment of such a laboratory and, what is of equal importance, to maintain it during a period of years without encroaching on the regular hospital funds. It is intended that competent persons shall be permitted to make use of this laboratory free of charge. for original research along stated lines in the disorders of women and children. In this way we shall be greatly benefited locally and, it is quite possible that as the result of work done here these benefits may extend beyond our borders and reach as far as Paris, where Mrs. Hoff resides, and to the whole world. Up to the present time this is the only laboratory in the State of Michigan where such researches can be carried out almost without restriction and without cost to the observer, and we hope that in time much good may result to suffering humanity from what we may be able to accomplish. If the projectors of this institution forty years ago could have looked forward to this day and seen the great advances which have been made in this charity foundation and then gone out and told about it, people would have said that they were enthusiasts affected with psychic disorder in which air-castle building was the manifestation. Such results could hardly have been dreamed of at that time. But since these things have come to pass, and are an established fact, we ask you to make use of the present opportunity, look over the building, note the clean, fresh condition which prevails, and which is the same every day and not manufactured for this occasion; note that nearly all of the private rooms are outside rooms, thereby insuring to each patient an abundance of fresh air and sunshine. You will also visit the new laboratory and see the many modern appliances which are necessary for thorough pathological, bacteriological and chemical work. And you are also invited to examine the babies in the Infant Department, but are requested to handle these little ones gently, for they are wise children. To illustrate this I may mention a little incident that occurred the other day. Some ladies were visiting the Infants ward and one little fellow who had been passed around a good deal, as he was returned to his crib, winked at his companion and remarked with an air of relief, "seventh lap." As the President has said, we are glad to see so many of our friends here today, and we venture to hope that your coming will be a pleasure to yourselves and a profit to the Hospital. It now gives me pleasure to introduce Doctor Reuben Peterson, Professor of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women in the University of Michigan, who will speak to us on the subject of SPECIAL OBSTETRIC AND GYNECOLOGIC HOSPITALS. DOCTOR PETERSON: Madam President, Ladies and Gentlemen:-It is a pleasure and certainly an honor which I appreciate to be asked to say a few words on this most auspicious occasion, upon the subject of special obstetric and gynecologic hospitals. Although to others has been assigned the subject of laboratories, I cannot refrain from most heartily congratulating this institution and those connected with it upon the advent of a new era in its history. A laboratory is so essential to a hospital, that no matter how well the latter may be equipped in other respects, it makes but a poor showing and falls far short of doing the maximum amount of good, if this important department be lacking. Hence the establishing of a modern laboratory in such a hospital as this is no common event, but one to be hailed with joy and thanksgiving. Those who have felt the need of it in the past, and fully realize its present advantages, will surely see to it that from now on its facilities will be utilized to the fullest extent. Fortunately, considering the ten minutes Doctor Manton particularly stated was all I had alloted to me to speak, it is unnecessary for me to make a plea for the necessity of special hospitals for the alleviation of the sufferings of womankind. In this country, pioneer work in this direction. was done by J. Marion Sims in the early fifties, when despite the opposition of the medical men in charge of general hospitals, he succeeded in establishing the Woman's Hospital in the City of New York. Early securing the help and cooperation of men like Emmet and Thomas, Sims soon proved the immense superiority of the operative work in a special gynecologic hospital. The fame of this first hospital in America to be devoted solely to the ailments peculiar to women spread rapidly throughout this country and Europe and gave an impetus to American gynecology which has placed it in the front rank. Gradually similar institutions were established in Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago and other large cities. In these special hospitals were trained, as they could have been trained no where else, the young house officers and assistant surgeons. These trained men scattered all over the country and in turn became operators and instructors in their chosen fields. Thus the movement, started in New York over half a century ago has proved of immense value to this field of surgery and of incalculable value to thousands of women. Naturally the question will arise as to whether the same results would not have obtained if Sims had been able to secure a surgical appointment on the staff of a general hospital. He was a general, long before he became a special, surgeon. Would not his genius have achieved the same results if he had proformed his special operations outside of a special hospital? Hardly, for his efforts and strength would have been expended in too many directions. It takes time to devise new methods and much of the time Sims and Emmet devoted to this new surgery would have been dissipated in the routine work of a general hospital surgical service. It must be remembered that it took Sims four years of the hardest kind of work before he succeeded in perfecting his operation for vesicovaginal fistula, thereby making it possible to relieve thousands of women, up to that time doomed to lead miserable existences. He did this at a great sacrifice of time and money. He could not have accomplished it had he had a general service in a large hospital. This, then, is why better work is done in special hospitals, or what amounts to the same thing, a special department in a general hospital. The men or women who are doing the work are specialists in the broadest sense of the term. They confine themselves to their own particular field so that they may have more time to solve the problems, which are ever arising and will always arise so long as medicine is a progressive science. They do not claim for themselves more natural ability or industry than those who are not specialists. But they do claim, and with reason, that life is short and man's working hours all too few, and if any progress is to be made in any field of medicine or surgery it can only be accomplished by a concentration of one's energies upon a comparatively small field. Thus the special obstetric and gynecologic hospital gains through the special advantages it offers its medical staff for perfecting themselves in the treatment of a certain variety of cases. The more skilled they become, the more good will result to the community at large. But this is not all, for |