THIS IS my first opportunity to express to you my deep appreciation of the honor of serving as your presiding officer. I feel very humble when I look over the names of the distinguished surgeons who have gone before me in the presidency of this fine and illustrious surgical organization.
It is the duty of a president to deliver an address. This one will be short, and its brevity may be its greatest asset, for you will not all accept the ideas in it—ideas which have concerned me for a long time.
I want to say something about time—it seems more important to me now than it did years ago. May I quote from a recent sea novel, part of a letter from a doctor to his son?
Remember this if you can—there is nothing, nothing more precious than time. You probably feel you have a measureless supply of it,